Zombies Ate My Neighbors
by Jack Stryker
Summary: A story adaptation of a video game,- with the same title- about two teenagers named Zeke and Julie; who are on a mission to save their neighbors from zombies and other monstrosities that are invading their town.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Zombies Ate My Neighbors was not created by me, it is the property of Lucasarts and Konami. This is just a story adaptation of it that I decided to write. There are a few original characters created by me, for the purpose of making the story more interesting, but other than that I own absolutely nothing. Also, I apologize for the X's, but I have to separate the scenes somehow. And for some reason, this website won't let me use asterisks or dashes. So... yeah.

Copyright note: the song, Runnin' Free (c) Iron Maiden

**Zombies Ate My Neighbors**

**by Jack Stryker**

**Chapter 1**

**X X X**

Josh and Amy proceeded to make out in Josh's car, as they waited for Amy's sister, Sarah, to return. They'd made a bet with Sarah, that if she spent an hour sitting at the grave of a serial killer; who was put to death years ago, Josh would pay her a hundred dollars.

"You sure she'll be alright out there?" Amy asked.

"Aw, don't worry about her." Josh replied, "She'll come running back soon."

Little did either of them know... how right he was. Because it wasn't even five minutes later, when Sarah came running back and holding her nose.

"Guys... I can't do it!" she cried.

"Whoa now..." Josh responded, feigning surprise, "what's the matter? Arnie's ghost scare you away?"

Amy slapped Josh's shoulder as the two of them chuckled.

"You don't understand, guys." Sarah replied, waving her hand in front of her nose as she pulled out her phone, "This has nothing to do with him. Or any of the dead people buried there."

As Sarah opened the photo section of her phone, Amy looked at her in surprise and asked, "So what's the problem then? And... what is that revolting smell?"

Sarah selected the photo she'd just taken at the cemetery and handed the phone to Amy.

"This!" she said.

Josh and Amy looked at the picture on the phone. What they saw startled them.

"Oh my God!" Amy cried, "Toxic waste? In the cemetery? How could anyone do this?"

Josh stared at the picture for a moment, then motioned for Sarah to get in and said, "Let's get outta here!"

With that, Sarah got back in the car and Josh sped away from the cemetery as fast as he could. And it was a good thing they left when they did, because little did any of them hear the distinct rumbling and moaning sounds beneath the graves. Or see the hands that gradually began to rise out of them.

Meanwhile... a dark figure approached a pay phone across the street. He wore a black trenchcoat, a fedora on his head, sunglasses, and a black scarf covering his lower face. After taking a quick look around, he picked up the reciever and inserted two quarters into the slot. Then he lowered his scarf, took a card out of his pocket, and dialed the phone number on it.

"Hello." a voice answered.

"Hello, Father Vittorio?"

"Michael? Is that you, my son?"

"Yes. Listen, there isn't much time to explain. But I'm going to need holy water soon. And lots of it."

**X X X**

The next day...

Zeke pushed the mop back and forth along the kitchen floor, as some heavy metal music played on the stereo. With his parents out of town for the weekend, Zeke was given the task of keeping the house clean until they returned. Now, he was finishing up on his final chore: mopping the kitchen floor.

"I'm runnin' free, yeah!" he sang along with the stereo, "I'm runnin' free!"

As the song came to an end, Zeke knelt down and started imitating the final guitar riffs of the song, holding the mop as if it were a guitar. After the fantasy subsided, he got up and surveyed his handywork.

"Whew! Finished!"

After putting the mop away, Zeke glanced at the clock on the stereo.

"Hmm... looks like about time for lunch." he muttered to himself, "Think I'll go see how Trevor's doing, then maybe grab a burger on the way home."

With that, he turned off the stereo and went outside. He headed down the street to the toy store, where his friend Trevor worked. But as he passed by a certain house in the neighborhood, a water balloon suddenly hit him in the leg.

"AAAH!" he cried, "Hey, what-...?"

Then three more water balloons struck Zeke, leaving him soaked. Zeke looked up in frustration at the kids on the front lawn; who were pointing at him and laughing.

"You little punks!" he shouted, "I'm gonna make you pay for this! You hear me?"

The kids ignored him and started to get some more water balloons to throw. But Zeke didn't stick around to give them the chance.

_'Lousy punks!'_ he thought, running on his way, _'Why'd they have to choose *this* town to move to? And why aren't their parents ever around?'_

Finally, Zeke made it to the toy store and went inside, ignoring the people outside staring at his wet clothes. Trevor; who was sitting at the clerk's table and reading a book, glanced up at him.

"Hey, wassup Zeke!" he said.

"Hey, Trevor!"

"Been sweating in the sun too long, or you been showering with your clothes on again?" Trevor joked.

"Har de har har. This place got a bathroom, where I can dry off?"

"Yeah, it's over in the back. Just remember, no unpaid merch in there."

"Right." Zeke replied, making his way to the men's room and sighing with relief that it was unoccupied.

Trevor continued reading, as he waited for Zeke to emerge from the restroom. When he finally did come out, slightly drier than before, Trevor put his bookmark back in the book and put it away.

"I take it those punk kids in the neighborhood givin' ya trouble again?"

"Third time this week." Zeke replied with a sigh, "Actually... that's part of why I came here. You got anything here I can use to get some payback? Like a water gun or something?"

"As a matter of fact... we just got some pretty good ones right over there."

Zeke glanced over at the water guns on the shelf that Trevor pointed out. He walked over and picked up a red one.

"Hmm... nice model." he said, looking it over, "Kinda looks like an uzi."

"Shoots like one too." Trevor replied, "And we're selling 'em two for five dollars."

"Five bucks for two of 'em, eh? Sounds good to me." Zeke said, grabbing a blue one off the shelf, "Ring 'em up, bro."

He put the two water guns on the counter, took the money out of his wallet, and handed it to Trevor. As Trevor processed the transaction, he asked Zeke, "So, how's Julie?"

"Oh, umm... she's good." Zeke replied, "Err... actually, I uh... don't know. I kinda haven't seen her in a while."

"Yeah... well, uh..."

Trevor looked around, making sure no other store patrons were within earshot.

"Listen man, you didn't hear this from me," he said, "but Julie's friends have been telling her that she should dump you. Saying you never call, never write, and aren't giving her the attention she deserves. And... I hope I'm mistaken, but I heard she's actually planning to do it."

Julie was a girl in Zeke's neighborhood; whom he had gone to school with since kindergarten. The two of them shared many interests and became fast friends. Upon reaching their senior year in high school, they started dating. Recently, however, the two of them appeared to be growing apart as Zeke wasn't spending as much time with her as Julie would've liked.

"Oh... well, crap!" Zeke muttered, "I knew I should've taken her out the other night, instead of staying home watching that stupid zombie movie on TV; which I didn't even like."

He sighed and looked down at the floor.

"Probably the biggest mistake of my life."

"Hey, chin up, bro." Trevor replied, handing Zeke a shopping bag with his water guns and receipt inside, "It's probably not too late to make amends. Julie's a little more forgiving than most girls I know. Why don't you give her a call, maybe invite her to lunch or something? I'm sure she'll give you another chance."

Zeke smiled and nodded.

"Yeah." he said, taking the bag, "Yeah, I'll do that. Maybe there is still time. Thanks, man. I should visit you more often too. You sure know how to lift a guy's spirits."

Trevor chuckled and said, "Take care, bro. And good luck."

Zeke saluted and started towards the door, when the two of them suddenly heard sirens outside. Through the door, Zeke observed four Police cars zooming by.

"Huh... wonder what that's all about?" he muttered.

"Got me, man."

"Oh well. I'll see ya later, Trevor."

**X X X**

"And... that's ten." Julie said to herself, after applying the last bit of red polish onto her last toenail.

After setting the brush back into the nail polish bottle on her desk, Julie carefully removed the cotton balls from between her toes and dropped them into the trash. She then propped her feet up on the desk and wiggled her toes a bit, taking a quick moment to admire her newly red-painted nails.

"And now for the fingers."

Julie took up the brush once again and proceeded to paint her fingernails. She had just finished with the nails on one hand and started with the other hand, when her nearby cellphone started to ring. Glancing at the caller I.D., she learned that Zeke was calling her.

_'Great.'_ she thought, _'NOW he calls me! I knew I should've started on my nails sooner, and done my fingers first.'_

She sighed.

"Sorry, Zeke, but I'll have to let you go to voicemail."

**X X X**

"Hi, this is Julie."

"Hey Jul-..."

"Sorry I can't answer right now. Leave me a message and I'll get back to you, 'kay?"

Zeke sighed as he waited for the tone.

"Hey Julie, it's Zeke. I was thinking I'd head to Burgerland for lunch. You want to meet me there so I can buy you a burger? I should be there in about half an hour, after I... take care of something else real quick. Okay, bye."

As Zeke hung up, he took a breath and let out another sigh.

_'Man, she must really be mad at me right now.'_ he thought, _'I wonder if-...'_

Zeke didn't have time to finish that thought, as he felt a hand tap his shoulder. He turned to look and saw a man in a trenchcoat standing next to him, with his hands in his pockets.

"Begging your pardon, young man," he said, "but I couldn't help overhearing you wish to punish some certain... public nuisances plagueing this city."

"Err... well, I..."

The man pulled two vials of water out of his pockets and handed them to him.

"Here, take these." he said, "Use the water inside them to load your water guns. Only then will you be able to deal with those troublesome whelps, and face the horrors that will come later."

"Okaaaaaay..." Zeke replied, taking the two vials, "Wait... what do you mean by-..."

"I... must go now. Good luck."

With that, the figure bolted away and disappeared into the shadows.

"...Who was that strange, suspicious-looking man?" Zeke asked himself.

Shrugging, he put his shopping bag down and took out the water guns.

**X X X**

To be Continued.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**X X X  
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The kids laughed hysterically at the now-egg-splattered car that passed by their house, little noticing Zeke approaching them with his hands behind his back.

"Hello, kiddies." he said, "Remember me?"

The kids stopped laughing and stared back at him.

"Well, I remember you. And I've got a little something for you. Something I like to call... PAYBACK!"

With that, Zeke whipped out the water guns from behind his back and began spraying the kids like crazy. But to his surprise, the kids reacted very differently than how he expected. Instead of just holding up their hands in a futile effort to block the water, or trying to get away from it, they shrieked with pain and fell to the ground in agony. They began to cry things like, "It burns!" or "The pain!"

Zeke stared at them for a while, then laughed and continued his assault.

"Oh, don't be such big babies!" he said, "It's only-..."

Then one by one, the kids dissolved away into green pools of slime.

"...water?"

Zeke stared back in shock, unable to believe what had just happened. He ran back to the bush; where he had hidden the shopping bag with the two water bottles inside.

_'What the heck kind of water was that?' _he thought, as he picked up one of the bottles and looked it over carefully.

Then he was awestruck to find the words 'Holy Water' imprinted on the bottle.

"Holy water? How did that... oh my God..."

After spending a few seconds taking in everything that had just happened, Zeke quickly put his water guns in the bag and ran home with it as fast as he could. Soon after he'd disappeared, a car pulled into the driveway.

"That was a wonderful vacation, dear." the woman in the car told her husband.

"Can we do it again, Daddy?" a little girl in the back asked.

"We'll see, honey." her father replied.

As they got out of the car and started to unpack, the woman screamed and pointed at their lawn. Her husband looked.

"Eww!" he cried, grimacing, "Who poured all this green... goo all over our lawn?"

**X X X**

"...I should be there in half an hour, after I... take care of something real quick." Zeke's voice on Julie's phone said, "Okay, bye."

Julie sighed.

"Burgerland again. Why am I not surprised?"

Shrugging, Julie began typing a text response.

'Hey Zeke,' she typed, 'got your message. I'll be there soon.'

After sending the message, Julie pocketed her phone and picked up her shoes; which she put on. Then she put on her red cap and purple jacket, and started to walk out her door. But she stopped after putting her hands in her jacket pockets, and feeling a piece of paper in one of them. It was a letter she had written for Zeke, after her friends had started telling her that she should break up with him. She was reluctant to do so, given that they had been friends for so long, but eventually started to think that maybe her friends were right.

Julie pulled out the letter and looked it over, doing her best to memorize the words she had written. Then she sighed again, as she stuffed the letter back into her pocket..

"I'm sorry, Zeke. I hope you'll understand."

**X X X**

Zeke paced back and forth in his room, still unable to believe what he had just done.

"Holy water... killed those kids... but how? And... just what exactly were those... things... anyway?"

The more Zeke thought about it, the more it disturbed him.

"I gotta take my mind off this, somehow, before I go stir crazy!"

He looked around his room, until he noticed a stack of 3D comics that he had purchased yesterday.

"Yeah. That'll work."

Zeke opened his top drawer and pulled out his 3D glasses; which he put on, and then took out one of the comic books. He lay down on his bed and started reading. But he hadn't gotten far, when the sounds of screaming came down the street. Zeke sighed. Noisy neighbors were just what he needed right now. He walked over to the front door, still wearing his glasses, and opened the door to see what was going on. He was soon shocked to see people running down the street in terror. What was even more shocking, however, was what they were running from: a crowd of pale-skinned people with torn old clothing on and messy hair, shambling down the street after them.

"What... in the...?" Zeke cried out.

One of them suddenly turned his way, then pointed at him and moaned out loud. In that person's eyes, there was a big T-bone steak standing in the doorway. A few other monstrosities in the crowd turned to face the "steak" and started moving his way. Zeke quickly slammed the door shut and propped himself against it, panting heavily.

"Oh, man!" he cried, "Those punks down the street... whatever they were... were bad enough, but now there are... ZOMBIES in the neighborhood? NOT cool!"

Suddenly, Zeke thought about the stranger he had met earlier that day, and what the stranger had said to him.

_ "Take these. Use the water inside them to load your water guns. Only then will you be able to deal with those troublesome whelps, and face the horrors that will come later."_

"...the guns!"

Zeke ran to his bedroom and grabbed his water guns, shaking them to make sure they still had some of the water in them. Then he ran to the front door, tucking one water gun under his arm and grasping the door handle with his free hand. Peering through the small scope on the door, he could see one zombie approaching the doorstep with five others not too far behind.

_'Well, here goes nothing.' _he thought, as he pulled the door open.

Zeke pointed one of his weapons at the closest zombie and fired a stream of holy water at it. Sure enough, upon the water's impact, the zombie collapsed into a pile of body parts and grew silent. Zeke stared at its remains for a brief moment, then smiled and began firing both guns at the mob of zombies until they all succumbed to his onslaught.

"Cool!" he shouted, "Look out, zombies! There's a new Sheriff in town!"

Zeke closed the door behind him and started making his way down the street, blasting zombie after zombie with his squirt guns. As he came near a car parked by the sidewalk, he realized he was still wearing his 3D glasses.

"Hmm... I suppose I can take these off now." he muttered, as he started to remove them.

But after noticing his reflection in the car window, he stopped and lowered them back into place. Then he smiled.

"Actually... I look pretty cool like this. Maybe I should keep 'em on."

That's when Zeke heard a scream nearby. He looked over to see a woman being chased by a zombie; who was slowly gaining on her.

"Don't come!" she cried, "Don't come!"

_'...Don't come!'_ Zeke thought, _'Really, lady?'_

Zeke quickly dispatched the zombie and the woman stopped to catch her breath, staring back amazement. Then she suddenly pointed in another direction and said, "Please help him!" When Zeke turned in that direction, he saw a man pinned against a car with two zombies coming his way.

"Don't kill me!" the man cried, "No! Nooo!"

But two streams of holy water later, and the zombies were reduced to piles of body parts.

"I... I don't know how you did that... but thanks!"

"Sure thing." Zeke replied.

"Oh, and thanks for saving my girlfriend too." the man added, as he ran up to the woman and the two of them shared a hug.

"Girlfriend... oh my God, Julie!"

Zeke whipped out his phone to check for a new message from her. Sure enough, there was her text message.

"Crap!" Zeke cried, "I totally forgot! Again! No wonder she was supposedly thinking of breaking up with me. I better get to Burgerland and see if she's okay. And while I'm at it, maybe see if I can still grab a burger. I forgot I was hungry too. ...Gonna stop talking to myself now."

**X X X**

To be Continued


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**X X X  
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The zombie paced around the restaurant, still looking for a person to feast on. Not seeing any meals around, he shrugged and shuffled out the door. As soon as everything seemed quiet, Julie slowly crept out from under the table and looked around, sighing with relief that she was now alone.

"What is going on here?" she wondered aloud, "What are those... things... and where did they come from?"

Suddenly, she heard a loud moaning sound and turned to see another zombie standing outside the restaurant door and pointing her way. Startled, Julie screamed and fell backwards onto the floor. As the zombie staggered towards her, Julie held her arms in front of her face and closed her eyes, trembling with fear. She could hear the zombie getting closer and closer, until... nothing. She slowly opened her eyes and peered over her arms, then lowered her arms and looked on in surprise. The zombie... or what was left of him... was now a heap of body parts in front of her.

"Julie!"

She looked up to face the voice.

"Zeke?"

Zeke ran up to Julie, tucking one water gun under his arm, and held out his free hand to Julie; who slowly took his hand and allowed him to help her up. Zeke then lifted his 3D glasses to his forehead and threw his arms around her. Although still shaken up by the recent events, Julie was able to return his hug.

"Sorry I took so long getting here." Zeke told Julie after letting go, "It's... kind of a long story. I'm just so glad you're alright."

"Zeke, what's happening here? Where are those things coming from? And... what's with the 3D specs, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, I can't answer the first two questions. But these specs... I don't know, I just thought they looked cool. Anyway... whatever's going on here, I know how to stop it."

"You... you do?"

"Well... maybe not exactly, but I know how to kill the zombies. You see, I got these-..."

Zeke was cut off as another series of moans came from the other entrance door.

He sighed and said, "Well, it's another long story. Just watch!"

With the water guns, Zeke easily made short work of the small group of zombies before they could make it much farther. Julie stared back in shock, rubbed her eyes, and blinked a few times.

"Did... did you just...?" she stammered, "Am... am I seeing this right?"

"Believe me, Julie, that's the same kind of reaction I had at first. But it's no ordinary water! It's actually-..."

"Wait... don't tell me. It's holy water, isn't it?"

"How'd you know?"

To Zeke's surprise, Julie took out two bottles of holy water out of her jacket pocket.

"It was the strangest thing." she said, "I was just on my way here, when this... strange man..."

"Wait a sec..." Zeke cut in, "black trenchcoat, scarf over his face, sunglasses, and a hat?"

"Oh... you saw him too?"

Zeke nodded and asked, "He gave you those, I presume?"

"Yeah. Said I'd need it to survive the 'coming horrors.' But when those zombies came in here, I was just so scared and didn't know how to-... LOOK OUT!"

Zeke spun around, just to see a zombie behind him reach out to grab him. Stumbling backwards, Zeke brought both squirt guns up and squeezed the triggers. As the streams of holy water hit the zombie; who instantly exploded, Zeke stood there and panted.

"That was too close!" he cried, "Perhaps we should continue this conversation somewhere safer."

"I hear that. Let's cut through the kitchen. There should be a back door there."

Zeke nodded and the two of them climbed over the restaurant counter. Then Zeke stopped.

"Wait, Julie."

"What's wrong?" Julie asked.

Zeke looked at the blue gun and then handed it to her.

"Here, you take this one." he said, "I don't want to leave you unprotected."

Julie hesitated, then smiled softly and nodded as she took the weapon.

"Thanks, Zeke."

The two of them then made their way through the kitchen.

"Hello? Chef?" Zeke jokingly called, "Spare a couple burgers, maybe?"

Suddenly, Julie pointed and said, "Zeke, look!"

There, in the middle of the kitchen, appeared a door with an exit sign over it.

"Whoa..." Zeke cried, staring in shock.

Zeke and Julie looked at each other. Then, as they cautiously approached the door, it slowly opened for them. Through the doorway, they could see nothing but pitch black.

"I don't know about this, Zeke." Julie whispered to him, "I don't think I trust some mysterious door that just appears out of nowhere."

No sooner than she said that, the restaurant's back door suddenly burst open and several zombies came shambling into the restaurant.

"Then again... given the choice between mysterious doors and streets full of zombies..." she hastily added, "I'll take mysterious doors!"

With that, Zeke and Julie jumped through the door; which closed behind them and vanished.

**X X X**

To be Continued


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**X X X  
><strong>

Zeke and Julie instantly found themselves going through another door; which vanished behind them, and falling face down on the ground. Fortunately, they landed on soft grass.

"Ugh..." Zeke groaned, "maybe we should've just *walked* through it."

"Yeah... maybe." Julie replied.

As they picked themselves up off the ground and dusted off, Zeke looked around.

"Huh... looks like we're back at my house." he said.

Julie looked.

"Hey, looks like you got a package." she said, pointing at a box on his doorstep.

"Hmm... probably another gift from you-know-who. Not that I don't appreciate his help so far, don't get me wrong."

Zeke approached the doorstep, put his gun down, and started to open the box; which was unsealed and had no mailing information on it. Suddenly, another zombie appeared and shambled towards Zeke, moaning with hunger. But just as Zeke turned and reached for his weapon, another blast of holy water reduced the zombie to a pile of bones. Zeke turned and smiled in thanks at Julie, as she raised her gun and blew into the barrel.

"Perhaps we should take it inside first, before examining its contents." she said.

"You're right." Zeke replied, picking up the box and his gun, "I sure hope there aren't any zombies inside though. I just mopped the kitchen."

Julie opened the door for Zeke and they went inside.

"You go ahead," Julie told Zeke, as she pulled out one of her holy water vials; which she used to refill her weapon, "I'll search the house and make sure its vacant."

"Thanks, Julie." Zeke replied, leaning over and planting a small kiss on her cheek, before taking the box into the living room.

Julie stopped for a brief second, then smiled.

_'This has all gotta be some wonderful dream.' _she thought, as she began her search through the house.

Zeke put the box and his gun on the coffee table, and opened the box. In addition to a few more holy water vials, the box contained a small hand-computer device and a note; which Zeke took out and unfolded.

_'Greetings, my friend.'_ it said, _'If you are reading this, then I can safely assume that you've rescued your girlfriend and made it back home, via my transport door._

_There isn't much time to explain everything now, but as you may have gathered, your town has become overrun with monsters. This is no accident, however. It is the work of a mad scientist named Dr. Tongue. He has this bizarre plan for revenge against this town, for his humiliation with some failed experiments. Now he has begun to set those experiments loose upon the city. Even now, as I write this, the Military has begun to quarantine the town and evacuate any survivors. Unfortunately, most of the town's residents- including the ones in your neighborhood- are still in danger and the Military is having a difficult time fighting the monsters that threaten them. That is why I've given you a prototype model of my transport door control device. You can use it to transport your neighbors safely to the Military base, where they will be safe._

_Hurry! Save the neighbors, before it's too late!'_

Zeke took a moment to absorb the words he'd just read, before looking up to see Julie enter the room.

"Well, I've searched the whole house." she said, "No zombies in here. Gotta say though, I'm impressed by how neat this house is."

"Yeah... my parents are out of town and made me clean up the place while they were gone. Anyway, take a look at this."

Zeke handed Julie the note; which she read.

"Hmm... so, the fate of the neighborhood depends on us, huh?" she asked.

"Looks like." Zeke replied, picking up the door control device, "Julie... you're good with computers, right? You think you can make this thing work?"

He handed the device to Julie; who looked it over and nodded.

"Yeah, I suppose." she responded, "Doesn't look too hard to figure out. ...You sure you want to go through with this though?"

Zeke took a brief moment to think of what to say. Then he stood up, his water gun in hand.

"Well, we have the tools and we have the talent." he said, "Besides, you remember how we used to play back at school? Pretending to be superheroes, saving the world, and all that? We always hoped back then, to become real heroes some day. This is our chance, Julie."

Julie thought about it, appearing somewhat convinced.

"On the other hand..." Zeke continued, "we could just stay here and wait for the Army to arrive; by which time the neighbors will probably all be dead, and the neighborhood will be so full of zombies, that some soldier might mistake us for-..."

"Okay." Julie interrupted, "That's all the convincing I need. Let's go save the neighbors!"

**X X X**

To be Continued


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**X X X  
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The cheerleader screamed in terror, as the zombies came closer and closer.

"No!" she cried, "Like, please don't eat me! I'm like, too young to die!"

Suddenly, to her surprise, the zombies exploded and two teens from her neighborhood stood just a few feet away, triumphantly brandishing water guns.

"Objection noted and sustained." Zeke remarked.

"Umm... yeah..." Julie added, "We're kinda still working on our one-liners. You okay, Tina?"

"Julie? Like... oh my God! That was like, totally unbelievable! Oh... hi, Zeke. Did you like, just come back from a movie or some junk?"

"Huh? Oh, the glasses. Nah, I just thought they made me look... you know... badass."

Tina shot him a weird look.

"Just come with us." Julie told her, "We'll take you somewhere safe."

"Okay... like, whatever."

As Zeke and Julie proceeded through the yard, with Tina in tow, Julie took out the device and started to examine its functions some more. Then she gasped excitedly and cried, "Zeke, check this out!"

Zeke looked at the device.

"Wow!" he said, "Its got a built-in radar too?"

"Looks like it. I'm guessing these three blips on the screen are us. So that one there must be..."

"AAAH!" a voice screamed.

"Yep." Julie mused, "Another living person in distress. Come on!"

The three of them ran in the direction of the scream, the blip on the radar screen getting closer to their position as they ran. Suddenly, after Zeke looked past the zombies heading towards the victim, he became filled with dread upon seeing who that victim was.

"Oh no..."

"What?" Julie asked.

"Oh my God... like, it's Ms. Crabtree!" Tina responded, "The meanest school teacher in the whole world!"

"Oh..."

"You dirty creeps stay away from me!" Ms. Crabtree screamed at the zombies, "I'll give you an F! You hear me?"

"Should we, or shouldn't we?" Zeke asked Julie.

"Zeke..."

"Oh, all right."

Zeke reluctantly helped Julie blast the zombies coming for Ms. Crabtree; who looked up in surprise, then glared with disappointment at Zeke.

"Well, look who it isn't." she said, "You two never could pay attention long enough to pass a test, and now you're playing with water guns and 3D glasses at a time like this!"

"Hey!" Tina snapped back, "Like, they totally just saved your life from those nasty and like, totally disgusting things!"

"Yeah." Zeke added, "So... you're welcome?"

"Don't talk back at me like that, you little ingrates! If I have to put up with any more of..."

The trio rolled their eyes as Ms. Crabtree babbled on.

"We don't have time for this." Julie muttered to Zeke; who nodded.

"Look, Ms. Crabtree," he cut her off with, "we've got a neighborhood full of people to rescue. You want to come along, fine. You don't, it's your funeral. Let's go, girls."

With that, the trio moved on.

"Hmmph!" Ms. Crabtree scoffed, "Those troublemakers! Saving the neighborhood indeed!"

She started to walk away, until she saw another even bigger swarm of zombies approaching from a short distance away.

"...Wait for me!" she cried, turning around and running to catch up to her rescuers.

**X X X**

Mr. Johnson dug his spatula under one of his hamburger patties and casually flipped it into the air, watching it fall back on to the grill. He then proceeded flipping the rest of the patties as his wife approached with a plate full of hamburger buns; which she placed on the barbeque shelf.

"Has anyone even called yet?" he asked her.

"Nope, still no sign of them. I wonder what's... did you just hear something?"

Mr. Johnson paused to listen, then shook his head and shrugged before he began placing the hamburgers on the buns.

"I just don't get it." he said, "I thought they'd be here by now."

Soon after hamburgers were prepared, the back door swung open and a voice called, "Mr. Johnson!"

The couple turned to see Zeke, Julie, the cheerleader, and the teacher coming their way. In Zeke's arms was their sleeping baby.

"Did... we invite any of them?" Mrs. Johnson whispered to her husband, "And... what is he doing with Tyler?"

As the group approached the couple, Zeke handed little Tyler to his mother and said, "You guys alright?"

Mrs. Johnson looked at Zeke questioningly as she took her baby.

"You two are out here barbequeing, while your infant son was almost eaten alive?" Ms. Crabtree berated them, "You get an F!"

Zeke, Julie, and Tina sighed and covered their faces with their palms; as Ms. Crabtree wrote an F on her notepad, tore out the page, and handed it to Mr. Johnson.

"What?" Mr. Johnson retorted, "What the heck's going on here?"

"Well, there's like, these totally nasty and disgusting-..." Tina started to say.

"Let's just cut to the chase." Julie cut her off, "The city's been invaded by zombies!"

"Yeah." Zeke added, "And the authorities are having trouble dealing with them, so we're here to save you."

"Zombies?" Mrs. Johnson blustered, "Is this some kind of joke? There's no such thing as-..."

Suddenly, she was interrupted by a loud moaning noise as three zombies approached from the other side of the backyard. As the couple screamed, Zeke and Julie quickly dispatched the zombie trio with their guns.

"Do you believe us now?" Julie asked.

They stared in shock at the zombie remains, before the sounds of a dog's growls and barking filled the air.

"Oh no!" Mr. Johnson cried, "Rudy's tied up over there!"

"I'll get him." Zeke volunteered, "Julie, you see about getting that door fired up."

Julie nodded and pulled out the device, as Zeke ran to find the neighbors' dog. As Julie examined the controls and prepared to set the coordinates, Tina leaned and over to her and whispered, "So are you like, still seeing him, or some junk?"

"For now." Julie responded, "We'll see how things go from here, before I make my final decision."

Zeke didn't have to go far, before he saw the dog growling and barking viciously at a single zombie coming towards him. After Zeke disposed of said zombie, Rudy stopped barking and stared for a moment before turning his head in Zeke's direction. He then let out a friendly bark and started panting and wagging his tail, as he recognized a friendly face.

"Hey, Rudy! How ya doin', boy?"

Zeke untied Rudy's leash, and was soon overwhelmed by the typical canine affection.

"Yeah, I know." he said, petting the dog and wiping his own face, "Good to see you too. Now lets get you outta here."

Zeke took hold of Rudy's leash and ran with him to the survivors' position.

"I got him, Julie." he called, "Let's go!"

"Hang on." Julie replied, "I'm still setting the... wait... okay, I got the coordinates set! Here we go!"

Julie pushed a button on the device. A short beam shot out of it and an exit door- like the one that had previously taken Zeke and Julie home- materialized at the end of the beam. The other survivors all stared in shock.

"Head through that door." Julie ordered, "It'll take you to the Fort Wilhelm Military base."

"Whoa..." Tina cried, "That's like, totally cool!"

"...You sure this thing will work?" Mrs. Johnson asked.

"Trust us." Zeke assured her, "We've been through this door before. It works."

The survivors looked at each other. Then Tina shrugged and went first through the door. Ms. Crabtree then reluctantly started to follow.

"You two had better be right about this," she told Zeke and Julie, "or else, I'll-..."

"You'll give us an F." Zeke and Julie said together, "Yeah, we know."

"Now don't you..."

Suddenly, a low deep growl from Rudy shut her up.

"...Nevermind!"

With that, Ms. Crabtree ran through the door. Zeke smiled and stroked Rudy's head.

"Thanks, Rudy." he said.

"Being a good boy as usual." Mrs Johnson added with a smile as she went through the door with the baby.

Mr. Johnson nodded in agreement and started towards the door. Then he stopped and ran back towards the barbeque, holding up his index finger. He grabbed the plate full of hamburgers, ran back to Zeke and Julie, and held the plate out to them.

"Don't want these to go to waste." he said, "Here, have one for saving us."

"Oh... well, we did kinda skip lunch." Zeke replied, gratefully taking one, "And come to think of it... I have been craving a good burger all day. Thanks."

Burgers weren't Julie's most favorite of foods, but she couldn't deny the fact that she was hungry too. So out of politeness, she took one with a smile and said, "Thank you, Mr. Johnson."

Mr. Johnson then noticed Rudy looking up at him, panting and wagging his tail.

"Yes, Rudy," he said, "you can have one too, for shutting up Ms. Crabtree, as soon as we arrive at the base."

"Err... you might want to hurry though." Julie told him, pointing out another group of zombies coming their way.

He nodded as Zeke handed him Rudy's leash. Taking hold of it; while being careful not to drop the platter, Mr. Johnson lead Rudy through the door. Julie then went after him. As Zeke started after her, he turned to face the zombies.

"Sorry, deadheads," he remarked, taking a bite ouf of his burger, "but this is one barbeque you're not invi-..."

Zeke was interrupted as Julie's hand came out the door, grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him through. The door then closed and vanished. The zombies stared in confusion, then groaned in disappointment and shuffled off. Little had anyone noticed that Michael, the mysterious stranger that had been assisting the teenagers in their adventure, had been watching them through the living room window. As the zombies left, he smiled briefly and muttered, "Very good so far. But you still have a long way to go."

**X X X**

"So... if I've got this straight..." the soldier inquired, "you two fought off the zombies with holy water, gathered up these survivors, and teleported them all here with that door that just appeared?"

"Yep." Zeke replied, pocketing his 3D glasses, "Pretty much."

"Corporal!" a Lieutenant shouted, as he approached, "What's going on here?"

Julie suddenly recognized the officer.

"Uncle Harry?"

Her uncle looked at her in surprise.

"Julie! What are you doing here?"

"Saving the neighborhood?" she offered.

"I don't know if you can believe this, Sir..." the Corporal told the Lieutenant, "but apparently, these two have been fighting off those monstrosities in the city by squirting holy water at them. They also say that they used some strange gizmo to teleport these other survivors here."

"Is that right?" Harry asked the teenagers.

"Yep, and there's more victims where these ones came from." Zeke responded with a nod, "So we'd better get back to it. Julie?"

"Right."

Julie began to set the device's coordinates back to their neighborhood, before her uncle Harry put his hand on her shoulder.

"Now hold up a minute!" he said, "I don't think Command will look too kindly on me allowing you two to go back into a danger zone. Unless... you could do us a favor. Some of our boys were sent to the local Roy's Mart to look for survivors and still haven't reported back yet. If you could find those men and bring them back to base, along with any other survivors you may come across, then perhaps we can let you have your little adventure."

Zeke and Julie looked at each other and shrugged.

"Alright, Sir." Zeke replied, giving a salute, "You can count on us. Let's go."

Zeke took his 3D glasses out of his pocket and put them on, as Julie set the coordinates to Roy's Mart and activated the door. Harry watched as the two teenagers walked through the door; which vanished soon afterwards, and then turned to the crowd.

"Okay," he said, "so if you folks would just come this way... say, you didn't bring any bratwurst, did you?"

**X X X**

To be Continued


	6. Chapter 6

Copyright note: My Little Pony (c) Hasbro (And believe me, they can have it!)

**Chapter 6**

**X X X  
><strong>

"They're all over the place!" one soldier cried, "We can't stop 'em! They just keep coming!"

"Whoa, whoa, easy there." Julie told him, "What's going on?"

"We were sent here to search for survivors." the other soldier explained, "Everything was quiet, until we came near the store room; where there was this terrible smell. We went in to investigate, and then... they came!"

Zeke nodded.

"Well, have no fear, soldiers." he reassured the two of them, "The Cavalry has arrived. We'll make those zombies wish they'd never crawled out of their graves!"

"Zombies? We didn't say anything about zombies."

Zeke and Julie stared at the soldiers in confusion.

"You... didn't see any zombies in here?" Julie asked, as Zeke suddenly turned his head and stared in another direction, "Then... what did you..."

Julie was interrupted as Zeke began tugging on her jacket and pointed in the direction he was staring.

"There's another one!" one of the soldiers cried.

There was a baby doll walking towards them. It was smiling at them, with one hand behind its back, as it got closer.

"A Fun Baby doll?" Julie queried.

Suddenly, the doll's face turned from friendly to fearsome, as it pulled a hatchet out from behind its back and started to laugh maniacally at them.

"Yikes!"

Zeke, Julie, and the two soldiers all dove out of the way as the doll leapt towards them, swinging its weapon.

"How on Earth..." Julie started to say, as she picked herself up.

"Who cares? Just blast it!" Zeke cut her off with.

Just as the doll turned around to attack his targets again, he was struck by two streams of holy water. Suddenly, he began to shake uncontrollably as sparks started to shoot out. Then he started spinning, as his laughter got even faster and much higher-pitched. Then finally, the doll exploded. After watching this, Zeke and Julie looked back at the soldiers in disbelief.

"You mean to tell us that you guys were attacked by a bunch of toys?" Zeke blustered.

"We tried to fight them, but there were just so many! And they just kept coming!"

Julie took out the hand computer and activated its radar.

"Hmm... well, if this radar is accurate," she said, "there are still some live humans here. Could be the rest of your squad, or it could be other survivors. In either case..."

Suddenly, there was the sound of more laughter as another living doll approached. Zeke and Julie quickly opened fire on him. After watching this doll short-circuit, just like the last one, they observed his body bursting into two pieces.

"Good thing those dolls come with batteries." Zeke commented, "We better get these guys outta here, while we still can."

Julie nodded and, after making sure the coordinates were set back to Fort Wilhelm, she activated the transport door.

"Go through that door." she said, "It'll take you back to base."

The soldiers stood up and stared at the door. Then one of them sighed.

"First we're attacked by dolls with axes," he muttered, "and now we're being saved by a couple of kids with squirt guns. Now I *know* I'm losing my mind."

"Hey, look at it this way." Zeke told him, "At least now you won't lose your life!"

The soldier started to speak again, but then just shrugged in agreement and the two of them grudgingly walked through the door.

"Better just leave it here and direct the others to it." Julie said, "Now let's get to work finding them."

Zeke nodded and they headed for the escalator. As they neared it, Zeke suddenly lifted his 3D glasses and gasped. He then ran all the way up to the upper level, just in time to pick up a baby girl; who was crawling towards it.

"That was close!" he muttered, lowering his glasses again, "You could've been eviscerated by that thing!"

Julie caught up to him not long afterward, with a smile on her face.

"Nice save." she complimented.

"Help!" a voice suddenly cried out nearby.

Zeke and Julie ran to the aisle where the voice came from. There, they found a tourist couple hastily backing away from a doll that was running at them with a hatchet. Julie quickly opened fire on the doll and Zeke joined the assault, carefully holding on to the child with his other arm. The couple stopped moving as the doll began to short out. They watched as the doll's bottom half exploded, its torso shooting up into the air and falling with a thud. The couple then looked up at their rescuers.

"Oh, my baby!" the woman shouted.

Zeke glanced at the baby he was holding, then smiled and sighed with relief. He walked up to them and handed the baby to her.

"Here." he said, "She's okay. Head downstairs. There's a door that'll take you somewhere safe."

"Thanks, kid." the man replied, then whispered to his wife, "Told ya we should've gone to Vegas."

As the teens watched the tourists leave with their baby, Julie shook her water gun; which was now nearly empty.

"I'm running low." she said, reaching into her jacket pocket for a refill of holy water, "We're wasting too much of this stuff on those dolls. There must be..."

Julie stopped when she observed Zeke taking a small plastic soda bottle off the shelf and unscrewing the cap.

"...What are you doing?"

"I'm thirsty." Zeke replied, taking a drink.

Julie shot him a stern look of disapproval.

"Hey, I wouldn't normally steal, but who's gonna take my money at a time like this? Besides, I'm pretty sure the Police and the store workers have more important problems to worry about right now, than shoplifters."

Realizing he had a point, Julie's expression faded.

"Well... I guess since you put it that way..." she said, taking a soda can off the shelf for herself, "I just hope we don't have to get used to this for too... Zeke, behind you!"

Zeke spun around, just to see another doll right in front of him, raising its weapon.

"Gyah!" he cried, as he stumbled backwards, involuntarily squeezing the bottle and spilling soda all over the doll.

As he picked himself up off the floor, Zeke noticed the doll starting to short circuit, just like the ones they'd sprayed with their guns. He and Julie quickly backed a safe distance away from the doll as its head exploded. The now-headless doll fell over backwards on to the floor. As Julie noticed another doll coming their way, she looked at the soda can in her hand thought, _'Hmmm!'_

"Get back, Zeke!" she said, shaking up the can.

Zeke looked at her questioningly, as she popped the can open and threw it at the incoming doll. The can hit the floor in front of the doll and an explosion of soda enveloped him. As the liquid fizzed and steamed, this doll began to short-circuit as well. Soon afterwards, its body exploded, leaving its head to fall onto the floor where its body once stood. Upon observing this, Zeke and Julie looked at each other and smiled.

**X X X**

The cheerleader watched in amazement as the doll that had threatened her began to short-circuit after the thrown soda can 'detonated.' Soon afterwards, the doll lifted its hatchet arm to attack, only to have it fall right off. Then its body fell off its legs and lay there, continuing to laugh until the sound slowly died away.

"Wow!" she said, "I wish I'd thought of that. Thanks. Umm... why are you wearing...?"

"These glasses?" Zeke responded, "Just thought they looked cool."

He then lowered them, to take a good look at the cheerleader.

"So... I notice you're the second cheerleader in uniform, that we've seen today. Did you have some kind of dress rehearsal, or something?"

"Yeah... we were practicing for the school basketball game this friday, when those zombies came at us. We all split up to try and escape, but... I think I may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire!"

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, Tina's okay." Julie told her, "She's at the Fort Wilhelm Military base. There's um... a magic door over at the store entrance that'll take you there."

The cheerleader nodded.

"Any other day, I would've thought you two were crazy." she said, "But after the things I've seen today, I'll never doubt you again."

With that, she made a break for the door. Julie took a look at the hand computer's radar screen.

"According to this, there's just one more-..."

Suddenly, another voice from the nearby store room shouted, "Stay back! Don't come anywhere near me, you... walking... piece of junk!"

Julie motioned for Zeke to follow, and they ran to the store room. There, they found another soldier, the last member of the missing squad, backed into a corner with his pistol pointed nervously at an incoming doll.

"I mean it!" he cried, "I'll blow your head off! Don't you take another step!"

"We got your back, Soldier!" Zeke called, pulling a can from a six-pack, that was tied to his belt.

The soldier turned his head and watched as Zeke shook the can, popped the tab and shouted, "Fire in the hole!" before tossing the 'grenade' towards the doll. Following the explosion of soda, the doll started to short-circuit. Then to the teens' surprise, it burst into flames and started to run around on fire.

"Whoops..." Zeke muttered, "That was unexpected."

They frantically scanned around the room until Julie finally spotted a fire extinguisher on the wall. Tucking her water gun under her arm, she ran up to the extinguisher and pulled it free. She then yanked out the pin, readied the hose, and squeezed the handle as she ran up to the flaming doll. Within seconds, the flames went out and the doll's charred remains fell motionless on the floor. Julie sighed with relief as she replaced the pin and put the extinguisher down. The soldier got onto his feet and holstered his gun.

"Well, nice work, you two." he commended them, "I'm glad you showed up, cause... I was out of bullets. You haven't seen the rest of my squad, have you?"

"Actually, yes." Zeke replied, "We sent them, and all the other survivors here, back to base. I know it's kinda funny, but there's a glowing door over by the store entrance that'll take you there."

"Okay... say, aren't you two a little young to be fighting monsters and rescuing people?"

"Umm... yes, we are?"

The soldier thought about it for a brief second, then shrugged and said, "Whatever, I'm outta here."

As the soldier left, Zeke stopped and sniffed the air.

"You smell something?" he asked Julie.

"Yeah... yeah, I do." she replied, gradually moving towards source of the funny smell, "It smells like..."

Julie then jumped back as she finally found it.

"Toxic waste!"

"Really? How do you figure?" Zeke asked.

Then after noticing the toxic waste barrels himself, he simply uttered, "Oh."

Julie then noticed two crates near the toxic waste spillage; one of which had been broken open and was empty.

"Hey, Zeke... you think maybe this is what caused those dolls... and the zombies..."

She stopped when she heard a pounding noise coming from the inside of a crate nearby. In addition to that, there was the muffled sounds of maniacal laughter inside.

"Hold that thought." Zeke told her, "I'd get back here, if I were you. The natives are getting restless."

Julie glanced his way and was shocked to see him pick up one of two rockets off the floor and load it into a bazooka. With eyes wide open, she quickly ran to his side.

"A bazooka?" she cried, "Where did you find... nevermind. Just hurry and blast that crate!"

After raising the weapon onto his shoulder, Zeke looked at it in confusion.

"Umm... how do I fire this thing?" he asked.

"The trigger's right there on top."

"This one? ...Oops..."

When Zeke hit the trigger, he realized too late that he was holding the weapon backwards. He turned his head to see the rocket shoot the other way and hit another crate on the other side of the room. As the crate exploded, the teens observed several colored pieces of plastic fly all over the place.

"Err... sorry."

Julie ran to the exploded crate and surveyed the destruction.

"And you just destroyed a shipment of My Little Pony toys." she said.

"Oh, good. Then I didn't waste that rocket."

Zeke picked up another rocket and quickly reloaded the weapon. Then after making sure it was facing the right way, he pointed it at the Fun Baby doll crate.

"Okay, trying this again..." he muttered.

Zeke fired the rocket at the crate, just as one of the dolls broke through the side facing him. The doll only had a split-second to show a look of surprise, before the rocket made contact and the resulting explosion shut them all up for good. The two teens sighed with relief as baby doll parts fell everywhere.

"Glad that's over with." Julie commented shielding her face with her jacket sleeve, "Now lets get back to base. That toxic waste smell is getting annoying."

Zeke nodded in agreement, as he put the bazooka down, then they headed to the exit. Just as they made it downstairs, however, they noticed one last doll jumping around the room and laughing hysterically as he swung his hatchet around.

"Looks like we missed one." Julie told Zeke.

"Yep. You know, it's funny. So far, we've seen those things explode, fall apart, get decapitated, torn in half, blown up, and burst into flames. I wonder what this last one'll do when we kill it."

"Well, let's find out."

Julie took her last soda can, gave it a good shake, waited for the right moment, then quickly popped the top and threw it towards the doll. After the soda explosion enveloped him, the teens watched him shake as sparks shot out of him. Then he started to spin and continue laughing uncontrollably. After a while, he finally stopped moving and then fell forward onto the floor. Then... nothing.

"Wha... that's it?" Zeke cried, "No explosion, no nothing?"

Julie cautiously approached the doll, her water gun at the ready, and nudged him with her foot.

"I guess not." she replied with a shrug, "Sorry."

Zeke sighed in disappointment, then uttered, "Oh well. Let's go."

As they headed towards the transport door, Zeke untied the six-pack holder from his belt; which now had two sodas left. He took one off and offered the other to Julie; who took it, before tossing the empty holder over his shoulder. Little did either of them know that the doll they thought was out of commission had gotten right back up again. Picking up his hatchet, he started to creep up on the two unsuspecting teenagers with a soft giggle. But before he could catch up to them, one last spark caused his head and all of his appendages to fall off. As his disembodied head watched Zeke and Julie pass through the door; which vanished behind them, he let out one last "Aw..." before his voice finally gave out for good.

**X X X**

To be Continued


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**X X X  
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"That's right, Sir. ...Yes, Sir. Each and every one of them."

Harry glanced up as Zeke and Julie walked into his office and took their seats in front of his desk. As Zeke removed and pocketed his glasses, Harry nodded and motioned for the teens to wait.

"Yes, Sir. Understood."

With that, he hung up the phone.

"Well, it looks like you've impressed Command enough for them to allow you to continue your service to the city." he said, "I trust you've had a good enough rest, to carry out one more mission today?"

"Yes, Sir, Uncle Harry." Julie replied, "Great dinner too."

"I'll say." Zeke added, "Man, those ribs..."

Harry smiled.

"Good." he said, "Then we have one more mission for you tonight. General Wilkins has ordered me to take full responsibility over you, so I'm going to brief you on your missions from this point on. Oh, and take this radio too."

Harry took a hand radio off the desk and handed it to Zeke.

"Your callsign will be 'Dallas' and I'll be using the callsign: 'Houston.' Be sure to keep me informed of your mission progress, and don't hesitate to let me know any time you need support."

Zeke nodded and replied, "Got it.", then thought to himself, _'Dallas? Houston? Is he kidding?'_

"Now then, let's get down to business: Your next destination will be Walnut Street, where Julie's house is located. Our Intel says that that street has been one of the biggest sources of undead activity since this whole thing started today."

_'Oh my God...'_ Julie thought, _'If I hadn't left home when I did...'_

"Our recon pilots have also reported strange-looking silhouettes moving in the shadows, but we still haven't been able to discern just what they are. Naturally, your mission will be to search the street for survivors and bring as many of them back here as you can. But while you're at it, see if you can determine what those things in the shadows are."

"We're on it." Zeke replied with a salute.

He glanced over at Julie.

"Hey... you okay?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh, uh... yeah." Julie responded, quickly saluting her uncle, "Bring the survivors here and find out what those... other things are. Got it."

"Before you two go though," Harry continued, "I have something for you."

He picked up a box from behind his desk, placed it on top, and opened it. Inside were, you guessed it, more holy water vials.

"Left for us by a suspicious-looking man in a trenchcoat, I take it?" Julie asked.

"Indeed. Along with this note."

Harry handed a folded piece of paper to Julie; who unfolded it and read aloud:

"You have done well so far. But as you may have noticed, there are several other monstrosities wreaking havoc on the city. Some of them, fortunately, are vulnerable to holy water. Others, however, are not so vulnerable. Thus, you may need to find some additional weapons to assist in your task. I apologize, but I don't think I can provide you any further assistance. If you need additional help though, speak to Father Vittorio at the local church. He is an old friend of mine and may have some supplies you can use. Just give him the message: 'The light of dawn has arrived', and he'll know who you are.

Your anonymous friend."

Julie put the note down on the desk and took a holy water vial that Zeke handed to her.

"So that's where he got those things from, huh?" she mused, as she opened the vial and started to reload her water gun with it.

"Makes sense." Zeke responded, refilling his own weapon, "I have to wonder though, why he chose us to do this, rather than fight the monsters himself."

"At this point, your guess is as good as mine." Harry replied, "Although if possible, you might see about finding some clues as to this stranger's identity. I suspect he knows more about this whole thing than he's willing to share. That'll be all. Good luck out there."

Harry saluted the teens; who returned the gesture. Then Zeke put on his 3D glasses as Julie took out her hand computer, set the coordinates, and activated the door. Harry watched the two teens pass through the door; which vanished behind them.

"We should hold on to that thing, once this whole ordeal is over." he muttered to himself, "Our boys could really use one of those."

**X X X**

"Over this way!" Zeke shouted to the survivors, "Come on!"

Zeke lead the survivors to the edge of the street; where Julie stood by, guarding the transport door.

"Head through that door!" she called, "pointing at it with her gun, "Quick!"

As the surviving neighbors ran through the door, Julie held her phone up to her ear and listened as the phone on the other line rang. After dispatching a few approaching zombies behind her, without even turning around, she finally heard her mother's voice.

"Please leave me a message and I'll get back to you. Thank you."

Julie sighed and hung up.

"She's still not picking up?" Zeke asked.

She shook her head in response and looked down as she brushed away a single tear.

"I'm worried, Zeke. I really hope she's not... one of the unlucky ones."

Zeke put a hand on her shoulder.

"I wouldn't worry too much." he reassured her, "If she really is the same rough and tough cop that you've always described her as, then I'm sure the monsters in this city'll be more scared of her than any of these people are of them."

Julie couldn't help but smile. Those words not only helped her to feel better, but further reinforced her second thoughts about breaking up with him. She looked up into his red and blue lens covered eyes.

"You know..." she said, looking to change the subject, "I'm still amazed how well you can see out here in those glasses. If I were wearing socks today, they'd be knocked off."

"Oh, you're really not wearing socks? I assumed you just had them rolled down below your heels, like some of my friends do."

"...Why would you even wear socks, if you're not going to cover the entire foot with them?"

"I... don't know."

Before Zeke could dwell on that subject any further, Harry's voice came on the radio.

"Dallas, this is Houston. Give me a SitRep."

"...A what, now?" Zeke asked Julie.

"SitRep." she told him, "It stands for Situation Report."

"Oh, right... uh, this is Dallas. We've secured most of the survivors here. Just a couple more houses to go. So far, no sign of any of those... shadow... things though."

"Roger that, Dallas. Keep searching, but do not engage the unidentified subjects unless necessary. Houston out."

Julie checked the hand computer's radar screen, as Zeke reclipped the radio back onto his belt.

"Hmm... looks like most of the remaining survivors are all gathered at the Millers' house." she said, "With just a few more of them scattered in the surrounding area."

"Well then, let's hurry and get 'em outta here, so we can get ourselves outta here."

The teens ran to the Millers' doorstep and Zeke tried the door.

"Damn. Locked." he uttered in disappointment.

Looking around, however, Zeke noticed another soldier's forgotten bazooka lying on the ground nearby.

"Say... that looks like our ticket in."

As he went to retrieve the weapon though, Julie glanced down and noticed a faint glint of metal underneath the welcome mat.

"Wait, stop!" she shouted at Zeke, "Better idea."

She lifted the welcome mat, to reveal a key; which she took and held up. Zeke groaned a bit.

"It's always gotta be the Dr. Spengler way with you, doesn't it?" he quipped, as Julie unlocked the door.

Just as she was about to open it, however, the teens started hearing voices coming from the backyard.

"Help!" the voices called, "Save me! Over here!"

"Crap..." Julie said, "Let's split up. You go inside and protect the Millers. I'll save those people outside and come back."

Zeke nodded.

"Alright, be careful out there. And good luck." he told her, as he opened the door.

As Julie ran to the backyard gate and opened it, the voices continued.

"It's okay, everyone!" she shouted, "No need to shout, I've got you on radar!"

"Huh?!"

"Say what?!"

"Just... bear with me, okay? I'll find you!"

Having distinctly overheard Julie's conversation with the survivors outside, Zeke thought to himself, _'Boy, would it suck if we didn't have that radar thing, and had to follow those people's shouts. I'd never get used to that.'_

Zeke was soon snapped out of that thought, by another scream of terror in the nearby living room. With a light sigh, he called out, "Hang on!" and ran towards the direction of the scream. Upon approaching the living room, he observed a mother and her young son huddled in a corner of the room, as the father waved a broken bottle at two approaching zombies in a vain attempt to keep them away.

Putting his water gun behind his back, Zeke shouted, "Hey, deadheads! Wouldn't you like to start with an appetizer?"

The zombies turned to face Zeke. Then as if in agreement, they forgot about the Millers and made their way towards Zeke; who slowly and calmly backed away.

"That's right." he said, "Little bit closer. Oops, I'm so sorry..."

Now that the zombies had gotten a safe distance away from the Millers, Zeke whipped his gun out in front of him and blasted the zombies.

"but your dinner reservations have been revoked!"

"That was cool!" the boy cried, "Do it again!"

Zeke smirked as he lifted his 3D glasses.

"Sorry about the mess." he said, "You folks alright?"

"Who are you?" the father asked.

"Just a kid in the neighborhood. The name's Zeke. My girlfriend, Julie, and I have been sent by the Military to rescue you. As soon as Julie gets here, we'll take you-..."

"Look out!" the mother cried, pointing towards a window.

Zeke turned and saw a third zombie tumble through the open window. But before that zombie could get up to pursue his would-be buffet, Zeke's water gun reduced him to a pile of bloody bones. The boy giggled and clapped his hands in approval.

"You uh... might want to close that window too, by the way, to keep any more of them from crawling in. And the curtains, so they don't see us."

The father nodded and went to close the window, while the mother looked around.

"Hey, where's your sister?" she asked her son.

**X X X**

After using a nearby garden hose to wash some mud off her shoes, Julie turned it off and approached the trampolines, where a little girl was happily bouncing up and down on one of them.

"Hey!" she called, "Hey, kid!"

But the child paid no attention and continued bouncing. Seeing no other way to get her attention, Julie hopped onto the trampoline with her, her water gun still in hand.

"Hey there! Listen, uh... you might... want to... come down now."

"Why?" the girl asked.

"Because there's... monsters... out here... that want... to eat you!"

"What?"

Suddenly, the little girl noticed a zombie coming near the trampoline. Unlike Julie, however, the zombie got its shoes stuck in the mud puddle and was unable to escape. The girl stopped bouncing and stumbled backwards onto the ground, as she screamed at the zombie. Immediately, Julie jumped off the trampoline and blasted the zombie with a stream of holy water, before helping the child up.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

The little girl was crying, but only out of fear from the zombie that had approached her. Julie hugged her and patted her back, keeping an eye out for any more approaching zombies, until the child calmed down.

"Listen, my boyfriend is at your house with your family." she told the girl, after pulling away, "Go inside and he'll protect you."

The child nodded and ran to the back door of the house. After watching her go through the back door, Julie pulled out her hand computer and checked the radar screen. There were two survivors left, in the neighboring yard; which was now accessible via a fence that had been knocked down in the chaos. Julie ran to the other yard; where she could see two more cheerleaders, Lisa and Debby, backed up against the house wall and cowering in fear as a zombie came for them. Their fear turned to amazement, however, as they watched him explode before their very eyes, before noticing Julie standing nearby.

"Julie!" Lisa cried, "I thought that was your voice I heard out here."

"How did you do that?" Debby asked.

"Holy water." Julie replied, "Now just hold up a sec, and I'll get you somewhere safe."

Tucking her water gun under her arm, Julie activated the transport door.

"Go through that door. It'll take you to the Fort Wilhelm Military base. Tina and Jenny are already there."

Lisa and Debby stared at it the door in amazement, then looked at each other. Then Debby shrugged and walked through. Lisa started to follow, then stopped.

"So... did I hear you right out there?" she asked Julie, "Did you say your boyfriend is here? And is that boyfriend..."

"Zeke. Yes."

"Huh... so, you're still with him?"

"Yes. For now, anyway. And I'd go through that door now, if I were you."

Lisa nodded.

"Alright. Well, you know... I just kinda thought-..."

Julie cut her off, by shoving her through the door and quickly deactivating it. Then she pocketed the device and sighed with relief.

"I hope Zeke and the Millers are okay over there." she muttered, as she made her way back to the Millers' house.

Julie hadn't gone far, however, when she heard the sound of a wolf howl in the air. Soon afterwards, she began to hear what sounded like footsteps behind her. Instinctively, Julie turned around with her gun pointed towards... nothing. She nervously started to back up, then turned on her heel to run away, only to run smack dab into the biggest and hairiest beast she'd ever seen. After taking one look at the beast's wolf-like face, Julie screamed in terror and fell over backwards. She stared at the werewolf, as he slowly advanced on her, licking his chops. Finally, summoning all of her courage, Julie raised her weapon.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you to wash up, before you eat?" she said, as she pulled the trigger and launched a holy water stream into his face.

She then stared in shock as the werewolf simply brushed the water off his face and began to growl deeply.

"Okay... apparently, you're not vulnerable to holy water."

Julie slowly backed away, until she found herself backed up against the house and unable to back away any further. As the werewolf lunged at her, Julie quickly lifted her leg up and thrust her foot forward with a mighty kick. Unfortunately, her foot went right into the werewolf's open mouth; which just happened to close onto her shoe, right before it could make physical contact with him. Julie gasped in terror, but fortunately was unhurt. She struggled to pull her foot free as the werewolf began shaking it.

Finally, she said, "Alright, fine! You want it? You can have it!"

She then hastily untied the shoelace, causing the werewolf to pull her shoe right off and fall over backwards. Julie scampered for her life, as the werewolf picked himself up off the ground. After taking the shoe out of his mouth, the werewolf looked at it for a bit and sniffed it. Then he tossed it away in disgust and went to track down his prey. Julie's scent lead him to some trash cans, where he suddenly lost track of her. He stood there, sniffing the air for several minutes, before finally giving up and leaving in frustration. Julie slowly peeked out from behind the trash cans and sighed with relief.

"That was way too close! Now to go find Zeke and get out of here! ...After I get my shoe back."

As Julie went to look for her shoe, a zombie arm suddenly broke through the bottom of a nearby fence, right by her leg. Startled, she tripped and fell face down onto the grass, losing her grip on her water gun; which flew out of her hand and landed a few feet away from her. She crawled towards her gun to retrieve it, but was suddenly stopped in her tracks when the zombie arm reached out and grabbed the one shoe that she was still wearing. Once again, Julie struggled to free her foot, until she noticed three zombies approaching her from the front. As they came closer and closer to her fallen weapon, she soon realized that she'd be as good as dead if she didn't get to it first. So with a heavy sigh, Julie yanked her foot out of her other shoe and dove for her gun. Grabbing it, she got up on her feet and quickly dispatched the approaching zombies. After taking a quick breather, she looked down at her now-bare feet.

"Well, this isn't good." she muttered, wiggling her toes, "But I guess no sense worrying about it now."

Soon afterwards, Julie noticed the fence was being pounded on. Not wanting to be anywhere near it when it broke open, she started to high-tail it to the Millers' back door. Then she suddenly stopped, when she saw the mud puddle on the ground and remembered what a hassle it was to get through it with her shoes on. She frantically looked for a way around it, until she noticed the pair of trampolines and realized how conveniently spaced apart they were. Well, it was worth a shot. She climbed onto one of the trampolines and started to jump on it. Higher and higher she bounced, before making a momentous jump onto the other one. Spotting a lone zombie a short distance away, Julie made another leap off the second trampoline, as she dispatched him with her gun. After finally landing on the ground, she started to make her way to the back door of the house. Then all of a sudden, the gate to the backyard burst open and yet another mob of zombies appeared.

"Oh, COME ON!" Julie shouted.

This time, however, Julie didn't even need to raise her gun. Before she knew it, the zombies all started to explode right before her eyes, until they were all dead again. Then Julie noticed Zeke standing there, triumphantly brandishing his water gun in one hand and one of her shoes in the other.

"Thought I made it clear to you deadheads that NOBODY devours MY girlfriend!" he said.

"Zeke!"

She ran up and threw her arms around Zeke; who gently returned the hug.

"A bit hairier out here than you expected, huh?" he asked.

Thinking about her encounter with the werewolf, Julie nervously responded, "Yeah... you might say that."

After pulling away, Zeke looked down at Julie's feet.

"Yeah, I thought these shoes looked familiar." he said.

Glancing up, he then noticed another zombie stuck in the mud puddle; who was still holding Julie's other shoe.

"Be right back."

Julie blushed and curled her toes as she watched Zeke walk up to the immobilized zombie, with his water gun tucked under his arm, and snatch her shoe out of the zombie's hand. After walking a short distance away from him, Zeke pointed his gun at the zombie and blasted him. Then he approached Julie, knelt in front of her, and held her shoes up to her.

"Your shoes, madame."

With a smile, Julie gratefully took them from him.

"My thanks to you, good sir." she mused back, as she began to brush away the dirt and grass off one of her soles.

"By the way, I like your new pedicure." Zeke told Julie, "It's a nice shade of red, and even matches your fingers."

"Oh... thanks." she replied, putting her shoe back on and retying it, "Yeah, I just painted my toes this afternoon I and was in the middle of doing my fingers, when I got your call. That's why I couldn't answer."

"Aw, no problem. It happens. Now we better make ourselves- and the Millers- scarce, before any more zombies pop up out of nowhere. Which they seem to have a nasty habit of doing."

Julie nodded as she quickly brushed off her other sole and put her other shoe back on. Then the two of them went back into the house.

**X X X**

To be Continued


	8. Chapter 8

Author's note: I've added an additional scene to this chapter; which was originally going to be in Chapter 9, but I decided to move to this chapter so as not to make chapter 9 too long.

**X X X**

**Chapter 8**

**X X X  
><strong>

Zeke and Julie watched as the Millers stepped through the transport door.

"And it looks like that's everyone on this street." said Julie, "Now it's our turn."

Zeke nodded in agreement. But as the two of them approached the door, it suddenly faded away before their very eyes.

"Hey, what the...?" Zeke cried out.

Julie stared at the hand computer and started pushing buttons, but nothing happened.

"I don't get it!" she said with a shrug, "For some reason, this thing... it's not working anymore!"

Zeke took his radio and called Harry.

"Houston, we have a problem." he said, "...I can not believe I just said that!"

"This is Houston. What's wrong out there?"

"Umm... you know that computer thingy that we've been using to send people to the base? Well, we got everyone through the door, but... then it just stopped working."

"I see. What's your current location?"

"We're at the Millers' house, 532 Walnut Street."

"Alright, sit tight, Dallas. I'll send for a chopper to pick you up. Houston out."

Suddenly, the sounds of howls came again. This time, several of them all at once. And they were right outside the back door.

"Those wolves again..." Zeke blustered, putting his radio back onto his belt, "Where is Animal Control when you need them?"

"Uhh... I'd hate to tell you, Zeke..." Julie replied, "but those are no ordinary wolves."

"What do you mean?"

"You know how I lost my shoes out there, to the zombies? Well... I didn't lose the first one to a zombie, I lost it fighting off a werewolf bite."

"Say WHAT?!"

All of a sudden, the back door burst open and four werewolves leapt through the open doorway. Zeke and Julie stared back, as the werewolves began to rummage through the house, seemingly not noticing the teens.

Zeke looked back at Julie and said, "You mean to tell me you almost had your foot eaten off by one of those... werewolves?"

Julie nodded. Zeke then glared back at the werewolves, raised his gun, and lowered his glasses.

"Well, let's make them pay for that!"

"No, wait!" Julie cried.

But she was too late to stop Zeke from firing a stream of holy water at one of the werewolves; who all stopped and turned to face him.

"I kinda tried that already, and holy water doesn't work on them."

"Oh..."

The werewolf brushed the water off his face, as he and his comrades growled and licked their chops at the two humans.

"Okay..." Zeke said, "Plan B: RUN!"

The teens ran for their lives from the werewolves; who were quick to pursue. But before long, the predators lost sight of their prey and stared in confusion before splitting up and sniffing through the house for their missing meals. Zeke cautiously pushed the hall closet door open and looked around.

"I think the coast is clear." he whispered, motioning for Julie to follow.

Together, they snuck out of the closet.

"I think I found the problem with Lil' Sparky here too." Julie added, showing the computer to him.

"Lil' Sparky?"

"Yeah, that's the name I came up with for this thing. Thought it was kinda cute."

"Whatever. What's 'his' problem then?"

Julie turned Lil' Sparky over and slipped a small panel off, revealing two batteries; which were obviously dead.

"Huh... I don't know how we missed THAT before."

"Well, at least they're double A's." Julie replied, removing the dead batteriees, "So they shouldn't be too hard to-..."

Julie stopped when she heard a loud snarling nearby.

"Back in that closet, quick!" Zeke hissed at her.

In a flash, they jumped back into the closet and pulled the door closed. In the closet, they could hear the sounds of a werewolf sniffing around the area and grunting in frustration before bounding off.

"If we're gonna get outta here," Zeke told Julie, "we'll have to deal with them first. We can't keep hiding from them forever."

"True, but what can we use against them? Holy water doesn't work and even if the Millers had any guns, I doubt there'd be any silver bullets in the house."

"Yeah, well... there's gotta be something that can... wait a minute..."

"What?"

"Yeah... it's so crazy, it just might work! To the kitchen!"

"...The kitchen?"

Zeke opened the closet door and took hold of Julie's forearm to hurry her along with him. As they approached the kitchen, they observed one werewolf tearing up the living room to try and find a new meal.

"Hey, you stupid mutt!" Zeke called, "Over here!"

"What are you doing?!"

As the werewolf turned his head and ran towards the kitchen, Zeke threw open the silverware drawer. Julie stared in confusion as Zeke grabbed a fork and knife in one hand.

"...Silverware? You're gonna fight him with-..."

Zeke threw the utensils at the werewolf; which to Julie's surprise, caused him to roar in pain upon impact. He then fell to the floor and lay motionless, before dissapating away into nothingness. Zeke and Julie looked on, then looked at each other and smiled.

"Okay then."

**X X X**

Another werewolf yelped in pain and fell onto the floor, as several utensils flew from Julie's hand and struck him in the chest.

"That was for my foot!" she shouted at him, as he dissapated away.

_'Atta girl!'_ Zeke thought with a smirk, as he flung another pair of spoons at a third werewolf; who was running at him from down the hall.

"That all of 'em?" he asked.

Julie looked around, then stared past Zeke. She quickly retrieved some of the utensils she'd just thrown.

"Duck." she said, preparing to throw.

Zeke turned to face the werewolf approaching him from behind, then immediately obeyed Julie's order. After the utensils struck and killed the werewolf, Zeke slowly stood up again. That's when the teens heard the sounds of a Chinook helicopter preparing to land.

"Sounds like our ride's here." said Zeke, "Figures they'd show up just as we manage to take out those werewolves."

"Right?" Julie replied, "Oh well. Last one aboard is a rotten egg!"

As Julie ran for the front door, Zeke smiled and shook his head.

"First one aboard has to eat it!" he called, running after her.

**X X X**

"Werewolves, you say?" Harry asked, "And you took them out with... silverware?"

"That's right, Sir." Zeke replied with a nod, "Pretty sure silver bullets would work just as well though."

"Hmm... and any clues to the identity of our mystery friend?"

"Not a sign of him, since Julie and I first encountered him."

"Umm, actually..." Julie commented, "he did say in his last note that Father Vittorio at the church is a friend of his. Maybe he can tell us."

"Well, I don't want to risk sending you two there just yet. Not until we know for sure that the place is secure. Besides, you've been through enough for one night, and I think you've earned some rest. Sergeant Weber outside will show you to your barracks. Dismissed."

The teens saluted in response and left the office.

**X X X**

Meanwhile...

Dr. Weisman nervously approached Dr. Tongue; who was mixing chemicals in his lab.

"Dr. Tongue, Sir?" he said.

"What ith it now, Weithman?!" Dr. Tongue snapped back at his assistant, "Can't you thee I'm buthy?" (What is it now, Weisman?! Can't you see I'm busy?"

Barely managing to restrain his laughter at Dr. Tongue's deformed tongue and resulting speech impediment, Dr. Weisman continued.

"We uh... may be having some trouble."

"Trouble?!"

"Apparently, some neighborhood kids have taken it upon themselves to fight our monsters and rescue the people of the city. So far, they've been pretty successful."

"Oh, BAH!" Dr. Tongue replied, "Thoth pathetic thombieth, werewolveth, and toyth mean nothing to me! Mere diverthionth, before my greatest creathion is unleathed!" (Those pathetic zombies, werewolves, and toys mean nothing to me! Mere diversions, before my greatest creation is unleashed!"

Dr. Weisman cleared his throat, as Dr. Tongue began to laugh maniacally.

"Err... yes, um... about that." he said, "There seems to be a certain zombie, with an ugly tie, roaming through the city. Umm... I don't know where this one came from, but... he looks to be much more advanced than any of the others I've seen."

Dr. Tongue turned to face Dr. Weisman.

"Advanthed, you thay? How tho?" (Advanced, you say? How so?)

"Well, he appears to be able to fight in ways I've never seen a zombie fight. And apparently, he's giving the Police a hard time."

"Hmm... thoundth like the kind of thpethiman I could uthe. Find thith thombie and bring him to the lab." (sounds like the kind of speciman I could use. Find this zombie and bring him to the lab.)

"Yes, Sir."

"And bring me another paper towel, before you go."

Dr. Weisman sighed and replied, "Yes, Sir."

**X X X**

Zeke and Julie ran towards the Police roadblock, as fast as their feet would carry them, where three Police officers were firing upon a horde of zombies. Noticing the teenagers approaching them, one of the officers said, "Hey, you kids shouldn't be here!"

Another officer, a middle aged female, stared in surprise.

"Mom!" Julie cried.

"Julie!" her mother replied, "Zeke! What are you two..." she paused only to shoot an approaching zombie in the head, dispatching him. "Nevermind, just get down!"

Zeke and Julie obeyed, crouching behind her mother's squad car. But Julie couldn't help glancing out at a familiar-looking zombie.

"Oh no!" she cried, "Not Mr. Brown! He was my favorite teacher!"

"Julie, please," her mother told her, "stay down!"

Zeke had been silent thus far, not knowing what to think as he simply observed the grim situation. Soon afterwards, one of the officers shouted, "Arm incoming! Shoot that arm!"

To Zeke and Julie's amazement, a severed zombie arm crawled along the Police car towards the two officers; who frantically began shooting at it until they both ran out of bullets. They succeeded in stopping the zombie arm from attacking, but as they started to reload, a zombie's pulsing organ flew through the air towards them and landed in front of the car before suddenly exploding. The officers screamed in terror as they flew backwards, their car flying with them like a toy car thrown across a bedroom.

"Shit!" Julie's mom shouted, as Zeke and Julie looked on in horror.

Finally, Zeke said, "Come on!"

He and Julie then got on their feet and started to spray the approaching zombies. Julie's mom stared in shock as the zombies began to explode.

"How... how are you doing that?" she asked.

Zeke opened his mouth to explain, only to be cut off, as Julie pointed to a certain zombie and said, "Hey, what's that one doing?"

The zombie in question had just twisted his head off; which he then rolled towards them like a bowling ball.

"Get back!" Zeke cried, jumping back.

Julie went with him, but her mother was too late. The rolling zombie head soon got under her car and exploded, throwing her and the vehicle into the air and dropping them to a fatal crash.

"MOM!" Julie shouted.

"No..." a horrified Zeke uttered, his horror quickly switching to anger at the zombie; who somehow regrew his head and was now approaching them, "You'll pay for that, you monster!"

Zeke and Julie angrily pointed their guns at the zombie. But before they could fire, a cacophonus noise came from within his bowels, followed by a noxious gas. The teens cried out in pain and did their best to fan the gas away from their faces, as the horrible smell overwhelmed them. The next thing Zeke knew, the zombie was approaching Julie; who suddenly dropped her gun and fell onto the ground screaming, as the zombie leaped onto her.

"JULIE! NO!"

** X X X**

Zeke gasped in horror and panted as he sprang awake from the dream. With trepidation, he looked around for Julie. He then sighed with relief after seeing her fast asleep in the bed nearby, alive and unharmed. But just to be sure, Zeke climbed out of bed and gently placed two fingers on her neck. Sure enough, she still had a pulse.

"Good thing you're a heavy sleeper."

Zeke sat down on his bed and took a moment to marvel at how pretty Julie was, even in the darkness. Despite being clad only in his boxer shorts and a white T-shirt, he didn't feel the least bit cold looking at her. However, a cold feeling did come to him and his smile faded, when he started thinking about how neglective of her in the past. Often being too busy playing his video games or reading his comics to pay her much attention, rarely bothering to lift a finger to help her when she needed it, or forgetting to call her on the days when she was expecting it.

"My God..." he mumbled to himself, "I really have been a terrible boyfriend. If I hadn't called her when I did, I would've lost her for reals!"

Zeke knew then that he owed her a great big heart-filled apology. But now wasn't the time for it. It was late at night, she'd had a rough day, and was very tired. And that tired feeling was starting to return to him as well. So with a light yawn, he climbed back into bed and blew Julie a kiss before closing his eyes again.

_'Man, I sure hope we don't have to face any zombies like that one in real life.'_ he thought, _'That guy was dynamite! I hope Julie's mom is okay too. And Trevor, wherever he is. I owe him big time, for...'_

Zeke didn't finish that thought, before drifting back to sleep.

** X X X  
><strong>

To be Continued


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**X X X  
><strong>

Julie scratched her head as she checked Lil' Sparky's radar screen.

"Hmm... this is strange." she said.

Well, that is your conversation starter." Zeke mused, "What's strange?"

"I can hear some kids nearby, but Lil's Sparky show's nothing on radar. I hope this thing isn't malfunc-"

Julie was cut off as a dirt clod smacked her in the cheek.

"Ack!" she cried, "Hey!"

Glaring in the direction that the dirt clod came from, the teens noticed a child laughing at them and picking up another handful of mud; which he threw in their direction. This time, though, the teens were quick to dodge.

"You little punks just don't get it, do you?!" Zeke snapped at him, as he raised his water gun.

As she took out a handkerchief and started to wipe the mud off her face, Julie watched with surprise as Zeke sprayed the child; who shrieked in pain, fell onto the ground, and dissolved away. She lowered her hand and blinked at the sight.

"Man, I was hoping we'd be finished with those twerps after yesterday." Zeke muttered aloud, "Uhh... you missed a little dirt right here."

Julie wiped the rest of the dirt off her face, continuing to stare at the sticky pool of liquid on the ground.

"You've... dealt with them before?" she asked.

"Oh, that's right... you weren't here. Well, uh..."

"It's another long story, isn't it?"

"Yeah... I'll tell you about it back at the base. For now... just blast 'em."

"Right."

Zeke and Julie continued on their way, stopping to blast an occasional pod child, as Julie scanned the neighborhood.

"Still nothing." she said, after passing the fourth house.

Zeke shrugged.

"I dunno, maybe the Military already evacuated this street."

"But then why would Uncle Harry send us-..."

Julie stopped when she and Zeke heard a strange noise nearby.

"You hear that?" she asked.

"Uh-huh." Zeke replied, "Sounded like it came from that house over there. Let's check it out."

The teens approached the door; which Zeke cautiously checked. Finding it unlocked, he opened it and motioned for Julie to follow. The teens slowly moved through the foyer, their water guns at the ready, until they came to the living room.

"Let's split up and search the house," Julie said, "then meet up back here."

Zeke nodded and the two of them began searching the house. After completing his search and finding nothing, Zeke went back to the living room. That's when he saw Julie, through the sliding glass doors, walking around in the backyard.

"How'd she get out there?" he muttered to himself.

Curiously, he slid open the door and ran towards her. But he suddenly stopped when he noticed that she wasn't alone.

"What the...?" he cried, pushing his glasses up and staring in shock.

Another Julie was approaching him, with a not-so-friendly look on her face.

"If you're here... then who's... oh, wait..."

After quickly dodging a rock thrown at him by "Julie," Zeke suddenly saw three more "Julies" coming his way, along with a pair of "Zekes." None of whom looked too friendly.

"I get it." he said, raising his gun with a smirk, "Disguising yourselves as us, eh? Very clever. Not!"

**X X X**

"So that's where those things are coming from!" Julie muttered, as she stared out the master bedroom window, "And they're starting to make clones of us now? I gotta find Zeke and tell him."

After taking out her phone and using its camera to take a picture of the monstrosity outside, Julie pocketed it and ran back to the living room. There, she noticed the sliding glass door open and heard screams outside that sounded like her and Zeke. They were then followed by Zeke's voice shouting, "That's right! Now it's your turn to run home crying to your mommies! Not that... I've... ever done that..."

"Hmm... I guess he knows."

She went outside and observed him blasting the last of the "Julies", before one last "Zeke" came running at him. Zeke took a split-second to glance over at the real Julie, only to end up involuntarily dropping his gun as he was pounced on by his doppleganger. As the two Zekes started fighting, Julie raised her gun at them and started wondering with worry which one she should shoot. Then she suddenly slapped her forehead.

"What am I thinking?" she muttered, "It's holy water! Even if I hit the real Zeke, it's not gonna hurt him."

So with that, Julie took her shot and hit the Zeke on top; who then cried out in pain and rolled onto the ground screaming, as he started to dissolve away. The other Zeke got back on his feet and picked up the red water gun. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Julie fired another short stream of water at him.

"...what was that for?"

"Just checking." Julie replied, with a mischievous smile, "Oh, by the way, I found out where those things are coming from."

She pulled her phone out and opened the photo gallery.

"Apparently, there's this-..."

Julie was suddenly interrupted as a small stream of water hit her in the face. She glared up at Zeke; who was holding his gun behind his back and whistling innocently. After a short moment, Julie simply wiped the water off her face with her jacket sleeve, and selected the photo she had snapped.

"As I was saying..." she continued, "there's this giant plant... thing... outside the master bedroom, that's creating them."

Lifting his 3D glasses to his forehead, Zeke looked at the photo; which showed the biggest- and ugliest- plant he'd ever seen.

"Ick!" he responded, "I'd sure be embarrassed for Mom, to see one of those things in her flowerbed. Where is it again?"

"This way."

Turning off and pocketing her phone, Julie lead Zeke through the backyard until they finally got to the plant monstrosity. Zeke grimaced at the sight.

"Man!" he cried, "It's even more hideous in person! So to speak."

Zeke and Julie glanced at each other and shared a nod, before opening fire on the plant. However, their holy water didn't seem to have much effect on it. Julie stopped firing and shook her head at Zeke; who ceased fire as well. Then, before either of them could utter a word, the plant suddenly shot out three green spheres; which flew over their heads and splattered onto the ground behind them. From out of each puddle, a humanoid figure slowly formed. Zeke quickly blasted one of them with holy water, before his gun suddenly shot out a small burst of air.

"Crap, I'm out."

Julie dispatched the other two clones, before putting her gun under her arm and fishing out two holy water vials from her jacket pockets. After handing one of them to Zeke, she used the other one to refill her own water gun; which wasn't much more full than his.

"Okay, we've gotta find some other way to stop that thing." she said, "Any suggestions?"

Zeke racked his brain, as he discarded the empty holy water vial and screwed the cap back onto his gun. He didn't have time to speak, before a few more spheres landed nearby. Fortunately though, he did have an idea.

"Here." he said, handing his water gun to her, "Hold them off as long as you can. I'll be right back."

Julie watched in puzzlement as Zeke ran off, then turned back to face the pod clones advancing on her and quickly proceeded to blast them with both guns. Zeke, meanwhile, ran into the tool shed and began rummaging through the tools.

"Let's see... rake, shovel, weed whacker... weed whacker! Perfect!"

After watching the last of the clones dissolve away, Julie stared in disgust at all the sticky green puddles on the ground and then pointed the water guns at the plant monster.

_'Whatever he's up to, it sure better work!'_ she thought, as she reluctantly waited for more clones to spawn.

She didn't have to wait long, however, before she heard a loud buzzing noise nearby.

"Stand back, Julie!"

Julie turned to face Zeke's voice and quickly obeyed, as she observed him charging towards the plant monster with the weed whacker in his hands. The massive plant seemed to screech in pain as the blades began tearing through it. Eventually, the screeching stopped and Zeke switched off the tool and placed it against the wall of the house. He glanced over at Julie; who just stood there and stared at the carnage.

"Wow." she finally said, tossing his water gun to him, "I take it, this is why your dad only ever asked you to mow the lawn once?"

Zeke deftly caught his gun and let out a nervous chuckle.

"Yeah, umm... well..."

Those thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of Police sirens in the distance. The teens looked at each other, then Julie took out Lil' Sparky and turned it on. Sure enough, its radar screen showed three blips that were not too far from their position.

"Living people!" they both excitedly shouted together.

With that, they bounded through the house and out the door. Then Julie stopped.

"Wait!" she cried.

"What's wrong?"

"We'd better approach them with caution." Julie warned Zeke, tucking her water gun under her arm.

"Oh." Zeke replied, with a nervous chuckle, "Right."

Zeke "holstered" his gun under his arm and the teens continued on their way.

**X X X**

"And remember," Sergeant Mary Summers told her fellow officers, "don't stop until they drop!"

"Yes, Sir!"

With that, the Police officers got into position and opened fire on the horde of approaching zombies. Not long after they started, however, the Sergeant heard one of her partners say, "Hey, you kids shouldn't be here!" Sergeant Summers looked and then stared in surprise as Zeke and Julie approached her.

"Mom!"

"Julie!" her mother cried, "Zeke! What are you two..." she paused only to shoot an approaching zombie in the head, dispatching him. "Nevermind, just get down!"

Zeke and Julie obeyed, crouching behind Mary's squad car. That's when a thought suddenly hit Zeke.

"Wait a minute..." he muttered to himself.

He glanced at Julie; who was peeking out at a familiar-looking zombie.

"Oh no!" she cried, "Not Mr. Brown! He was my favorite teacher!"

"Julie, please," her mother told her, "stay down!"

Zeke pinched his arm.

_'Oh my God!'_ he thought, _'That dream last night! It's happening! It's actually happening!'_

Suddenly, he remembered the severed zombie arm.

"Arm incoming! Shoot that-..."

But to the officers' surprise, Zeke was already squirting holy water at the crawling arm; which suddenly began flinching and writhing until it suddenly stopped and lay motionless on the ground. All three officers stood up and stared in shock. Then Mary looked back up at the approaching zombies.

"How did you do that?" one of the officers asked.

Before Zeke could answer, Mary shouted, "Look out!" Zeke then ducked back down as she fired a shot in the air. The bullet struck a flying zombie organ; which exploded harmlessly in midair. Zeke looked up with a smile, both relieved and impressed at Mary's great accuracy.

"Come on!" he told Julie.

He and Julie got on their feet and started to spray the approaching zombies. Mary stared back in shock as the zombies began to explode. Then Zeke suddenly stopped as he remembered what happened next in his dream.

"How... how are you doing that?"

Zeke frantically began scanning the area for the zombie of his nightmare, until he suddenly found him; just as said zombie was starting to unscrew his head.

"Hey, what's that one-..." Julie started to say.

She stopped when she noticed Zeke climbing over the hood of her mother's patrol car.

"Hey! Zeke, what are you doing?!" she cried.

Zeke ran towards the zombie's self-severed rolling head, stopping only when it got close enough. Focusing all of his energy into one foot, Zeke waited for the right moment and then kicked the zombie head as hard as he could. The head flew through the air until it struck and bounced off another zombie, knocking him to the ground. Then it struck another zombie, and another, until all of the other zombies had been knocked down. Finally, the head exploded and grew back onto the ugly-tied zombie's neck. Zeke pushed his 3D glasses down, for the zombie to get a look at his narrowed glaring eyes, as he raised his gun. He squeezed the trigger... but only a few small drops came out, followed by a small burst of air. Zeke's eyes went wide as he suddenly realized that he'd once again run out. And this time, he and Julie had used up the only refills they'd brought.

"...Uh-oh."

The zombie began to advance on Zeke; who slowly backed away and started to chuckle. Until he heard Mary's gun cocking behind him and her voice say, "Move." Wasting no time, Zeke dove to the let Mary fire her last bullet; which went right between the zombie's eyes and dropped him to the ground, like a falling statue. Mary triumphantly blew the smoke from the barrel of her gun and returned it to the holster, as Zeke picked himself up off the ground.

"That was some nice shooting, Mrs. Summers." he complimented her, as he dusted himself off.

"Thanks." she replied, "You're not so bad yourself, although- whatever kind of water you used there- you might want to use a little less of it next time. What are you two doing out here anyway? And... what's with the glasses, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh... well, uh..."

Before he could go on, Mary suddenly noticed her partners and Julie approaching.

"Actually, hold that thought."

Julie ran up to Mary; who knelt down and hugged her.

"Julie!" she cried, kissing her forehead, "Thank goodness you're alright! I've been worried sick about you, since this whole thing started."

Zeke removed his glasses and smiled. He wanted to tell Julie how glad he was, that she was alive, but quickly decided that she didn't need to know about the terrible dream that he'd just averted.

"I was worried about you too, Mom." Julie replied, "But Zeke reassured me, reminding me how good you are."

Mary's partners began to survey the carnage, kicking the downed zombies; who didn't respond.

"Damn, son, that was one hell of a trick you pulled there!" one of the officers told Zeke.

"Yeah, kid! You killed five birds with one stone!" his parnter added.

"Heh... yeah, well... I uh... just got a little overexcited, I guess." Zeke replied.

"At any rate," Mary said to her partners, "it looks like this area is pretty much secure now. Why don't you boys head back to the station and I'll be along in a minute."

"Yes, Sir!" they replied, all too eager to leave the area, and headed back to their car.

Mary watched them drive off, then turned to the teens.

"As for you two..." she started to say.

She was interrupted, however, by her brother's voice on Zeke's radio.

"This is Houston, calling Dallas. Do you copy?"

Zeke motioned for her to wait, as he picked up the radio.

"Dallas here." he responded.

"What's your situation, Dallas?"

"Situation is... well, I believe there's someone else here you should talk to."

Zeke handed the radio to Mary; who took it with a smile.

"Harry!" she said, "Long time, no hear. How are you, bro?"

"...Mary? Is that you?"

**X X X**

To be Continued


	10. Chapter 10

Author's note: Apologies for such a short chapter, but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting too long for an update. Next one might take a while, but it will be longer and more action packed. Until then, I hope you enjoy this one.

**Chapter 10**

**X X X  
><strong>

Dr. Tongue poked and prodded the no longer UNdead zombie.

"What a magnithithent thpethiman!" (What a magnificent speciman!) he cried, "Ugly thie he'th wearing though." (Ugly tie he's wearing though.)

"Yeah..." Dr. Weisman agreed, "Just too bad he wasn't quite as efficient at destroying the Police as was initially expected. Although they did have help from those two neighborhood kids I warned you about yesterday."

"Ith that tho? Hmm... perhapth they are a threat tho my planth afthter all. Well, we'll jutht thee about that!" (Is that so? Hmm... perhaps they are a threat to my plans after all. Well, we'll just see about that!)

**X X X**

A big red spider scurried across the road, only to suddenly get squashed under the tire of an approaching Police car.

"So, if I've got this straight..." Mary said to the teenagers in the back, as she drove back to the Police station, "You two have been fighting off all those monstrosities in the city- using squirt guns loaded with holy water- and evacuating civilians to the Fort Wilhelm Military base, under the supervision of your Uncle Harry?"

"Mm-hmm." Julie replied with a nod, "That's pretty much it."

Mary let out a happy sigh.

"My daughter a zombie hunter! I never thought I'd see the day."

"Yeah, well... that makes three of us. Right, Zeke?"

Zeke nodded and said, "Got that right."

"Well, I'm glad you two came by when you did. That one zombie alone was giving me a headache as big as the city. If we couldn't stop him, for all I know, he could've gone so far as to pollute the city's water supply and then flood the city with it. Hell, they'd have to give this place the Raccoon City treatment!"

"The what?" Julie asked.

"Err... nothing. Forget I said that."

Julie looked at Zeke; who shrugged in response.

"Besides that," Mary continued, "I'm sure the Chief will be real happy to let you take those civilians at the station off our hands. Its been a losing battle, trying to keep them under control. One person there is really driving us crazy, constantly going on about some pranksters dumping some kind of green goo all over their lawn."

Zeke nervously tugged his shirt collar, remembering his first battle with the plant clones.

"So, uh... any idea how this whole thing started?" he asked.

"Nothing solid yet." Mary replied, "Although some witnesses have reported seeing toxic waste dumped into the cemetery."

Julie suddenly had a thought.

"Zeke... we saw toxic waste at Roy's Mart!" she reminded him, "It made those dolls come alive!"

"That's right... man, we should sue the sanitation department!"

**X X X**

The Police officers all watched as the civilians passed through the door, then breathed a collective sigh of relief as it disappeared behind them.

"Well, I must say that's quite an impressive- and handy- toy that your stranger friend gave you." the Chief told the teenagers, "And it looks like it's helping make both our lives and the lives of those civilians a little better. Now we can focus our efforts on finding out the cause of all the troubles in this town, and hopefully bring whoever's behind it to justice. Rest assured, we'll also do everything we can to locate and identify your anonymous friend as well."

"Thank you, Sir." Julie replied.

She turned to Zeke; who nodded with her and got on the radio.

"Houston, this is Dallas." he said, "We've sent all the people at the station to the base and are on our way back now."

"Roger that, Dallas." Harry replied, "Good work. Houston out."

Julie then reactivated the door and turned as Mary approached her.

"Julie, Zeke, you two be careful out there."

"Of course, Mom."

Mary gave each of them a hug, then said, "If you run into any trouble- anything you can't handle- give me a call. Don't worry, I'll make sure I have my phone on me at all times."

Julie smiled and nodded. And with that, she and Zeke walked through the door and deactivated it.

"All right, men, first things first." the Chief said, "Let's get this pig sty cleaned up!"

**X X X**

"Dr. Tongue... are you sure you want to unleash THAT one?" Dr. Weisman nervously asked, "He's not the most easily controllable."

"Don't quethtion me, Weithman!" (Don't question me, Weisman!) Dr. Tongue snapped back, "When I want your opinion, I'll athk for it. Now releathe him!" (When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it. Now release him!)

Dr. Weisman sighed and went to the castle dungeons, where Dr. Tongue's experimental creatures were being held. Upon approaching a certain door, he pulled a key out of his labcoat pocket.

"God, have mercy on me." he muttered, as he turned the key in the lock.

**X X X**

To be Continued


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**X X X  
><strong>

After watching the last survivor walk through the door, Julie checked the radar screen one last time.

"Did he make it?" Zeke asked, as he dispatched what appeared to be the last of the zombies in the area.

"Yeah, he made it." Julie replied, "And I think that's everyone."

"Good. Then let's get the heck out of this hedge maze and never speak of it again."

"Hear, hear."

But as the teens hightailed it to the door, Julie suddenly stared at Lil' Sparky and gasped, stopping in her tracks.

"Oh no, no, NO!" she cried out, slapping it repeatedly with the palm of her hand.

Zeke stopped as well, and lifted his glasses to stare at the door; which vanished before his eyes.

"...Let me guess." he said, lowering his glasses again, "Lil' Sparky's batteries ran out again, so I'll have to bug your uncle for a ride back now?"

Julie sighed, pocketed the device, and said, "Looks like. Come to think of it though... I don't really feel like just waiting around, when there could be more zombies or... who knows what else nearby."

"Hmm... good point. Let's head back to the house. Maybe we can borrow some batteries from their TV remote or something."

Julie chuckled.

"Great. And why don't we raid their refrigerator while we're at it?"

"Hey, better their food get eaten than they do." Zeke joked back, "Plus, it is starting to get dark and I could probably go for..."

Zeke stopped when he noticed Julie staring at one of the hedges nearby.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Zeke, look at this. Part of this hedge has been knocked over."

"I thought we agreed never to speak of this place again."

"Ha ha ha. Just come look."

Shrugging, Zeke walked over and lifted his glasses to get a better look at the fallen part of the hedge.

"Hmm... you're right." he said, "I don't remember seeing any of these hedges damaged like this before. This clearly wasn't accidental either."

Suddenly, a loud revving noise grabbed Julie's attention.

"My guess is that someone cut it down with a..."

"Chainsaw!" Julie cried, pointing at another hedge.

"Yeah, with a chainsaw."

Julie grabbed Zeke's head and swiftly turned it in the direction she was staring.

"...Oh."

Zeke and Julie then watched as a chainsaw blade came cutting down through a hedge in the distance, then came back up and cut down the other side. Finally, the square section of the hedge came falling down. Standing there behind the fallen hedge, holding the chainsaw that cut it down, was a six-foot-tall bald-headed man. He was dressed in a black shirt, blue jeans, brown shoes, and wore a hockey mask over his face. After kicking aside the fallen hedge section, he took a few steps forward. Then he stopped and stared at the teens. Zeke and Julie looked at each other, then stared back at the man; who started to walk towards them again.

"Uh... hey there!" Zeke said to him, "N-Nice chainsaw. So... uh... you here to... help us fight these monsters and save the city?"

The man was silent for a moment, then lifted his chainsaw over his head and roared in response.

"Uh... does 'RUAAAGH?' mean yes?"

Suddenly, the man charged at the teens and brought his chainsaw down towards them. Zeke and Julie jumped back in terror, just barely avoiding the blade in the nick of time.

"Hey, not cool, man!" Zeke snapped, "Reconstructive surgery is expensive, you know!"

"Yeah, I really don't think he's one of the good guys, Zeke." Julie told him, "Or... even among the living."

Zeke pushed his 3D glasses down and aimed his eyes over them, to get a good look at their attacker; who had pale skin and seemed to limp as he moved. And through the eye holes in his mask, Zeke could see a blank look in the man's eyes.

"Not among the living, eh?"

As the monster advanced on them again, the teens nodded at each other and fired their water guns. The monster roared in pain and fell over backwards onto the ground. He lay still for a moment, but suddenly jumped back onto his feet and grunted in anger. Zeke and Julie looked at each other again.

"Well... I'm out of ideas." Zeke regretfully admitted.

"I suppose we should start running for our lives then?" Julie replied to Zeke; who nodded.

So they did. They hadn't gone far, however, when they stopped to look around and saw that their attacker was nowhere in sight.

"Huh... not very fast, is he?" Zeke scoffed.

No sooner than he said that, the chainsaw's blade began cutting through another hedge nearby.

"...Oh, right. That."

Zeke and Julie resumed running for their lives, until they finally approached a fork in the path.

"Let's split up and try to throw him off." said Julie, "Then we'll regroup back at the house."

Zeke nodded and ran down the left path, while Julie went down the right.

As the chainsaw-wielding monster reached the fork, he stopped and began grunting as he looked both ways in confusion. Finally, he started slowly going down the left path until he heard a loud chiming noise on the other side of the hedge next to him. With a loud roar, he savagely cut down the hedge and burst through. But upon looking around the area, all he could see was a trampoline and a cellular phone on the ground a short distance away. Grunting in frustration, the masked man started walking away.

Once the coast was clear, Zeke crawled out from under the trampoline and retrieved his phone off the ground with a sigh of relief.

"I knew I should've set this thing to vibrate!" he muttered to himself, as he checked his new message.

It was a text from Julie; which said, 'Found new fresh batteries. Think you can make it back to the house?'

Zeke looked off in the distance and frowned as he realized the house was a long trip from where he was standing. But after surveying the hedges nearby and noting the damage left in the masked monster's wake, his frown turned upside down.

'I'll be there as soon as I can.' he quickly typed. After sending that message, Zeke pocketed his phone and hurried on his way to the house. But as he came near a thick section of hedges, Zeke suddenly stopped when he noticed a hole with something sticking out of it. Curiously, he lifted his glasses to his forehead and approached the hole to have a look.

"Well, well, well! What have we here!"

**X X X**

After reading Zeke's text response, Julie smiled and pocketed her phone. She sat down on the living room couch, hoping he wouldn't take too long. Not only did Julie want to get as far away from the chainsaw-wielding monster as she could, but she never did feel comfortable in a stranger's house. It wasn't long though, before she heard what sounded like footsteps outside. In a heartbeat, Julie sprang to her feet and ran to the front door.

"Thank goodness you're here." she said, as she opened the door, "I was starting to-... OH CRAP!"

But it wasn't Zeke at the door. It was- you guessed it- the monster with the chainsaw; who lifted it over his head and began to roar. Julie slammed the door and started to run, but it wasn't long before the chainsaw began cutting right through the door; which was then kicked open. She hightailed it through the house and out the back door. Suddenly, she tripped and fell onto the porch. As she groaned in pain and picked herself up, Julie looked back and saw the thing that tripped her: a fire extinguisher.

"Hmm... how'd this get out here?" she wondered aloud, as she picked it up.

Julie then shrieked and fell backwards after being startled by another roar from her chainsaw-wielding pursuer. As the masked monster came closer and closer, Julie looked at the extinguisher and back at the monster; who once again raised his chainsaw menacingly. At that moment Julie hastily pulled the extinguisher's pin, aimed the hose at her attacker, closed her eyes, and began spraying.

**X X X**

"Hang on, Julie!" Zeke shouted, "I'm comin' for ya!"

Having overheard Julie's screams and the monster's roars, Zeke hurried through the backyard of the house; via the monster's destructive path. On his back was yet another bazooka that he'd conveniently found along the way. Finally, he reached the back porch and readied the weapon.

"Alright, buster! Now you're gonna... huh?"

Zeke lowered his weapon, took off his glasses, and stared in amazement. The monster was now standing there, frozen solid like an ice sculpture, as Julie looked on with surprise as well. Putting the bazooka down, he ran up to Julie and helped her up.

"You okay?" he asked.

Julie surveyed her injuries as she dusted herself off.

"Just a little scratched from a fall. I'll be fine."

Zeke glanced at the fire extinguisher on the ground.

"Fire extinguisher, huh? See, I never would've thought of that."

Julie just smirked and shrugged in response. Suddenly, the frozen monster grunted and started slowly moving his fingers as he slowly began to defrost.

"Uh-oh..." Julie cried, "I don't think it's gonna hold him much longer!"

"Me neither. Quick, stand back!"

Zeke ran to retrieve the bazooka off the ground, put his 3D glasses back on, and watched as Julie picked up the extinguisher and moved a safe distance away. After putting the extinguisher down, she nodded to Zeke and covered her ears.

"Hasta la vista, Baby!" Zeke said, with his best Terminator impression, as he aimed at the frozen monster.

The rocket burst free from the bazooka's muzzle and, upon making contact, exploded the monster into a million frozen shards. When the shards finally settled, Zeke lowered the bazooka and triumphantly leaned on it for a moment. Then he put the weapon down and held open his arms, as Julie approached him and gave him a big hug.

"Good shot, 'Arnold.' " she said, planting a small kiss on his cheek before pulling back, "Thanks. So this is what... three I owe you? Or is it four? I've lost count."

"Heh... well... to be fair, you did repay me the first time when that one zombie appeared on my doorstep. Plus, I'm not sure I would've had a clear shot at the guy if you hadn't... hey, what's that?"

Julie turned to look, as Zeke approached the monster's remains. Among the melting ice shards was a shiny ruby; which Zeke picked up and lifted his glasses to get a good look at.

"Whoa..." he said, "Julie, check it out!"

Zeke held the ruby out to Julie; whose eyes went wide.

"Ooh! It's pretty! But... where did HE get it? And how'd it survive the explosion?"

Zeke shrugged and replied, "Beats me. Say... isn't your birthday about a month from now? I'll bet this thing would make one heck of a ring."

Julie chuckled at the thought and gently pushed his hand back.

"Flattering as that sounds," she said, "I think it'd be better if you kept it until this whole thing ends. Maybe you could find a pawn shop to sell it to, and then get me something a little more practical."

"Hmm... yeah, you're right. So... about getting out of here and never speaking of this place again?"

Julie nodded, took out Lil' Sparky, and activated the door; which the two of them promptly walked through.

Meanwhile, as the door vanished behind them, another man emerged from the open back door of the house. It was the mysterious trenchcoated stranger who had been helping the teenagers. He walked up to the remains of the monster and stared at them.

"I'll be damned!" he muttered with a smile, "Those two are even more resourceful than I thought! Perhaps there really is hope for this world."

**X X X**

To be Continued


	12. Chapter 12

Author's note: I apologize for the long delay. I had to do some major rewriting to make this chapter look good, and it was not easy. Hope you enjoy it.

**Chapter 12**

**X X X**

"Hello, am I speaking to a Father Vittorio?" Mary spoke into the phone.

"Yes, Ma'am." a voice responded, "How can I help you?"

"This is Sergeant Mary Summers of the JakobVille Police Department. We'd like to have a word with you, about a certain friend of yours."

**X X X**

"He really gave you that much for that ruby, huh?" Julie asked Zeke; who was counting up a wad of cash as they made their way towards the docks.

"Yep." Zeke replied, "I just showed it to him and he got so fascinated that he offered to 'buy it at a high price.' So I said, 'Okay, it's yours.' And then he was all like, 'Heheheheh... thank you!'"

"I... see..."

Julie took a brief moment to ponder how to comment on Zeke's story, then suddenly stopped walking.

"Wait!" she said.

"What's up?"

"Listen... you smell something?"

Zeke took a whif of the air, as he pocketed his money.

"As a matter of fact, Dr. Stantz, I do." he replied, "In fact... it smells like... Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!"

He and Julie stared in the direction that the smell was coming from. Sure enough...

"More toxic waste?!" Julie cried.

Zeke sighed.

"Well, that's just great!" he blustered, "First zombies, then evil toys, what's it gonna create next? Humanoid carnivorous fish monsters that walk on two legs and..."

That's when Zeke finally noticed Julie staring behind him, in shock.

"Let me guess... that thing I just described is coming up behind me, isn't it?"

Julie nodded frantically.

"That figures."

Zeke dove forward, just in time to avoid a swipe attack from said fish monster's razor sharp claws. As he hastily turned around and got back on his feet, he and Julie watched as the green scaly fish-like creature roared at them and came towards them with one hand menacingly raised in the air. Instinctively, the teens raised their water guns and began spraying. At first, the holy water didn't appear to have much effect. But then the creature suddenly shrieked in pain and exploded into several dead fish; which plopped down at the teens' feet. They stared for a moment, then looked at each other.

"That's it." Julie said, "I'm never eating sushi again."

"I hear that. Could sure go for a burger though."

_'Am I surprised?'_ Julie thought, rolling her eyes as she and Zeke moved on.

**X X X**

"And everyone over there is safe?" Harry asked.

"So he says." Mary responded on the other line, "And when I brought up that friend of his- and the teens- he asked that I send them to him."

"Zeke and Julie?"

"Yeah. Apparently, he has something for them and there's another certain survivor over there who knows them."

"Hmm... okay then. As soon as they come back, I'll see about sending them to the church."

**X X X**

After the survivors in the cabin passed through the door, Julie promptly deactivated it.

"That's two more down," she said, "only three to go."

"So far, so good." Zeke replied, before glancing out a nearby window.

Julie put Lil' Sparky away and shook her gun.

"Err... I think we have a problem though." she added.

"Heh... you can say that again. Look."

Julie looked out the window and cringed, as she observed several more green scaly monsters attempting to force their way into the other nearby cabins.

"Now would probably be a very good time to reload." Zeke told her.

Julie gulped.

"Uhh... yeah..." she said, "well, I hate to say this, but... we're kinda... all out."

"What? Wait... you mean... those last two vials..."

"'Fraid so."

Sighing, Zeke grabbed his radio.

"Houston, this is Dallas. We've got a problem here."

Zeke waited a moment, but got no response.

"Houston, come in." he tried again, "Do you copy?"

Still nothing.

"I guess we should've seen this coming." he said, clipping the radio back onto his belt.

"You know what that means." Julie responded with a sigh, "Time to scrounge up whatever we can find, to fight the monsters with."

"I'll check this closet."

Julie went to search the other side of the cabin, as Zeke opened the closet door. Then he suddenly cried out in shock.

"What's wrong?" Julie asked, as she came running to him, "You see a ghost in there or something?"

"No... even worse."

Julie looked inside the closet. Among some coats and a few other useless items, were two inflatable clown dolls. Julie gave Zeke a funny look.

"You're not honestly STILL scared of Oozo, are you?"

"Well... no... I uh..."

Zeke didn't have time to finish, before he and Julie were startled by the loud roar from another fish creature that had burst into the cabin. As the creature came closer and closer, the teens began frantically scanning the room for any kind of item to defend themselves with. Finally, Zeke noticed a large fast food soda cup on an end table. In a desperate move, he grabbed it, removed the lid, and splashed the liquid into the monster's face. But to the teen's surprise, the soda did more than just temporarily blind the monster; who roared in agony and collapsed into a pile of dead fish.

"Huh... so apparently, soda kills them too." Zeke mused.

Julie thought about that, then snapped her fingers.

"Zeke! There's a soda machine right outside!"

"That's right..."

Zeke took out the money he'd made that day, removed his glasses, and leafed through the bills.

"Dang... you got change for a twenty, Julie?"

Julie took out her wallet and counted up eight one dollar bills inside.

"Nevermind." Zeke said, handing a twenty to her, "Just keep it."

Shrugging, Julie gladly took the twenty and handed him her ones, then stuffed the twenty into her wallet and pocketed it. As she followed Zeke outside and he began to feed the soda machine, Julie suddenly had another thought.

"Say, Zeke... seeing as how neither of us have ever liked Oozo the Clown, maybe we ought to use him as fishing bait."

"Fishing bait?!" Zeke retorted, as he pulled a soda can out of the machine, "Julie, this is no time for... oh, wait... I see what you mean!"

Once again, Zeke and Julie looked at each other and smiled.

**X X X**

As the monsters continued growling and vainly scratching at the cabin doors, they suddenly stopped upon hearing a distinct voice nearby.

"Say, Zeke," it called, "why didn't the skeleton cross the road?"

"I don't know, why?"

"Cause he didn't have the guts!"

Immediately after Julie said that punchline, she and Zeke switched on two Oozo the Clown dolls and quickly raced out of sight. Like moths to a flame, the scaly creatures raced towards the two laughing clown dolls, ready to tear them apart.

"Here they come. Get ready." Julie instructed Zeke, as she began shaking up two soda cans.

Zeke couldn't help but snicker.

"Didn't have the guts, that's pretty good!"

"Zeke, focus!"

He cleared his throat and quickly assisted in preparing their 'grenades.'

"Sorry, sorry."

Before long, there were several green scaly monstrosities surrounding the clowns with their claws at the ready.

"Now!" Julie shouted, popping one of the cans open.

She and Zeke began popping and tossing the cans toward the creatures; who began to cry out in pain as the liquid drenched them. Finally, as the noises ceased, Zeke and Julie cautiously came out to have a look. The area was now littered with dead fish, empty soda cans, and plastic clown shreds; all strewn about in a sea of brown sugary liquid. Zeke and Julie took a moment to survey the carnage, then slapped a triumphant high-five.

"Now to finish the job and get outta here!" Julie said, pulling out Lil' Sparky and turning him on.

Zeke nodded in response and went after her, as she followed the radar. Then he suddenly stopped, and lifted his glasses to stare at another grisly sight.

"Oh no..."

"What's wrong?" Julie asked.

"I think we may be too late to save one of them."

Julie looked and was dismayed to see an unoccupied inner tube floating in the lake, stained with what looked like blood. She sighed and shrugged at Zeke.

"What can I say? We can't save everybody."

Soon after she said that, a voice nearby asked, "Hey, are they gone?"

Zeke and Julie turned to look as a small boy and girl in swimsuits approached them.

"What, those green monsters?" Zeke responded, "Yeah, we've taken care of them."

"Are you kids okay?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, we're fine." the boy responded, "Uh... have you seen our dad? He was with us in the water, but we lost him when we ran from those monsters."

"Uh... he wasn't out there in an inner tube, was he?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, you saw him?"

"Where is he?" the little girl asked, "Where's Daddy?"

Zeke and Julie looked at each other for a moment, then Zeke sighed and knelt down to the kids' eye level.

"Look, uh..." he said, taking off his glasses, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but..."

"Hey, there he is!" the boy shouted, pointing behind Zeke.

Zeke and Julie turned in amazement, as the kids ran up to a middle-aged man in red shorts and a white shirt; who approached them.

"Kids!" he shouted, hugging them, "Thank goodness you're alright!"

"Umm... you okay, mister?" Zeke asked, noticing a red stain on the man's shirt.

"Me? Oh yeah, I'm fine, all things considered. Sure has been a crazy day though. One minute we're all just chilling in the water, then the next thing we know, we're scurrying to get away from this green... mutant... thing... that's trying to kill us. Made me spill my punch all over myself too."

"So... that stain on your inner tube... was your drink?" Julie queried.

"What'd you think it was?"

Julie and Zeke glanced at each other, then both turned back and replied, "Nothing." After looking around in awkward silence for a moment, Julie activated the door.

"Head through that door." she said, "It'll take you to the Fort Wilhelm Military base."

The man and his kids stared in amazement.

"Cool!" the kids cried.

"You two are working for the Military?" the man asked, "I didn't think they hired teenagers to test their new inventions."

"Yeah... that's kind of a new thing." Zeke told him, "Don't know how much longer it's gonna last."

"Whatever. Come on, kids."

With that, the man and his kids walked through the door.

"That must've been some pretty thick punch he was drinking, if it looked that much like blood." Zeke muttered to Julie; who nodded.

"Come in, Dallas." Harry's voice on Zeke's radio said, "This is Houston. Give me a Sitrep."

"And NOW that thing's working." Julie commented, as Zeke picked up the radio.

"This is Dallas." he responded, "Well, the good news is that everyone here has been accounted for. Bad news is, we seem to have used up the last of our holy water."

"Is that right? Well, I may have some good news for you then. Come see me in my office as soon as you can."

"Way ahead of ya, Houston. Dallas out."

True to their word, Zeke and Julie wasted no time promptly walking through the door.

"Dethtroyed?! Impothible!" (Destroyed?! Impossible!) Dr. Tongue shouted, "How could thith happem?!" (How could this happen?!)

Dr. Weisman shrugged in response.

"I don't know, Doctor. But evidently, those two are an even bigger danger to your... our... plans than we thought."

Dr. Tongue gave that statement a moment's thought, then looked back at the operating table and smiled.

"Or... perhapth they may be the key to thith thity'th undoing!" (Or... perhaps they may be the key to this city's undoing!)

**X X X**

To be Continued


	13. Chapter 13

Author's note: Once again, apologies for the delay. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take as long.

Oh, but before I begin this chapter, I would like to take this moment to express my sorrow over the recent passing of Lucasarts. They were an excellent gaming company, responsible for the creation of lots of great games, including Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Thus, they shall be missed.

Well, enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 13**

**X X X**

"And so, that's why you always pull the grenade pin by hand." Harry told the teens, "Cause if you try pulling it with your teeth, you'll only wind up pulling your teeth out."

"Ouch." Zeke replied, rubbing his mouth at the thought.

Soon, the M2 Bradley arrived at the church and the door at the back of the vehicle opened.

"Alright, boys, fall out." Harry ordered.

The soldiers began filing out of the vehicle, rifles at the ready. Harry left the vehicle after them, and drew his pistol. After making his way to the church entrance and ensuring that there were no monsters nearby, he motioned for Zeke and Julie to come.

"You were right." Zeke whispered to Julie, "Having an uncle in the Military is pretty cool."

Julie smiled and nodded in agreement, as the two of them exited the vehicle and ran up to him.

"Alright, you two, listen up." Harry told them, "From what I understand, the inside of the church is safe and secure, but the survivors there will be better cared for at the base. Plus, the priest there claims to have some information we could use and a little something else for you. So head inside, send the survivors through the door, and go through it yourselves. Contact me, once you've made it back and we'll-..."

"Uh, Sir?" one soldier cried, "Hate to interrupt, but we've got company!"

Harry looked and sure enough, a large mob of hungry-looking zombies was coming their way.

"Crap! Hurry! Go!"

The teens hastily saluted in response and ran to the church door, as Harry and his fellow soldiers set up a perimiter around the Bradley and began to open fire on the zombies. With trepidation, Zeke knocked on the heavy wooden door. After a moment, they heard movement on the other side, then an elderly man's voice.

"Yes? Who is there?"

Zeke cleared his throat.

"I'm Zeke and this is my girlfriend, Julie." he said, "I believe you sent for us and... uhh... aw, jeez... there was something we were supposed to say to you. Some kind of... secret phrase... what was it again, Julie?"

"Oh... I forget... something about some... light, I think?"

"Oh! Oh, it's you!" Father Vittorio responded, hastily removing the bar and unlocking the bolts on the door, "Yes, I have been expecting you. Please, come in!"

Zeke and Julie shrugged as the door opened and walked inside.

"I am glad you arrived when you did." Father Vittorio continued, as he shut the door behind them, "The monsters in the city seem to be avoiding this church, for the most part. However, we have very little supplies left and these people are starting to get a little worried."

"How many of them are there?" Zeke asked.

"Five, excluding myself. By the way, I understand you've acquired a means of transport; which you've been using to evacuate other survivors?"

"Oh, yeah." Julie replied, pulling out Lil' Sparky, "This thing here. It creates a door that leads to wherever its coordinates are set. And we've been using it to send them to Fort Wilhelm."

"Ah... most impressive. Oh! I almost forgot, I have something for you. Would you excuse me a moment?"

With that, Vittorio left. Soon afterwards, another figure approached them.

"You the guys who that are here to... Julie? Zeke?"

"Trevor!" Zeke cried in excitement.

Zeke ran to him and punched his shoulder.

"You tough son of a bitch! I knew you'd make it."

"Heh, yeah." Trevor replied, rubbing his arm, "Same to you, man. Nice specs. So... you're the guys that are here to save us?"

"Yeah, well... it's a long story." Julie told him, "And we don't have time to waste right now, so..."

"Right."

Trevor then turned and called to the other survivors, "Hey guys, they're here! Come on!"

**X X X**

Father Vittorio walked towards the church entrance with a heavy cardboard box in his hands. But he soon quickened his pace, after noticing a glowing exit door and observing the other survivors looking at it in amazement.

"Look, we'll explain later." Zeke said, "Just go! Hurry!"

Finally, the survivors shrugged at each other and walked through the door.

"Was that all five of them?" he asked.

Julie checked Lil' Sparky's radar screen.

"Yeah, that looks like everyone." she replied, "Now we'd better hurry and join them. This thing only has about six percent battery power remaining."

Vittorio nodded and hurried through, doing his best to be careful with the clanking contents of his box, and the teens followed him.

**X X X**

The zombie continued shambling towards the buffet, never acknowledging the fact that the food was fighting back, nor ever knowing what hit him as a bullet struck him in the head and rendered him lifeless once again.

"I think that's all of them, Sir."

Harry holstered his pistol and took a moment to survey the area, until he heard Zeke's voice on his radio.

"Houston, this is Dallas. Come in!"

"This is Houston." Harry responded, "You made it back to base, I trust?"

"Yeah, we're all here. Everyone's okay."

"Good. I'll see you back at base, but head to the mess hall first. You've earned yourselves a meal."

"Roger that, Houston." Zeke replied, a sense of relief clear in his voice, "Dallas out."

Harry then called to the troops, "Alright, men, we're outta here! Let's go!"

The soldiers, all too eager to obey, quickly boarded the Bradley.

**X X X**

Zeke rubbed his belly with delight, as he and Julie made their way to Harry's office.

"Said it before, and I'll say it again: damn good ribs!"

"Yeah..." Julie replied, pausing to burp, "...'scuse me."

She opened the door and the two of them walked into the office; where Julie's uncle and the priest they'd rescued were waiting for them. On Harry's desk was the box that the priest had brought with him.

"Welcome back." Harry told them, with a salute; which they returned.

"Yes, good to see you again." Vittorio added, "As I mentioned before, I have something for you here. Take a look."

Father Vittorio opened the box and the teens peered inside. The box contained several more holy water vials, even larger than the ones they'd used begore. Zeke and Julie's eyes went wide.

"Whoa..." Zeke said, picking up one, "These oughta last us a long while!"

"Yes, I have been saving these ones for you, as I knew you would soon be running low."

"Okay, so... what's the part you haven't told us yet?" Julie asked.

"Ah, yes... you mean about my good friend, Michael. The man who has been supplying you on your mission."

Vittorio gestured towards two chairs nearby and the teens sat down to listen. Vittorio returned to his seat and began to speak.

"It was just last month, the night before all of these incidents started happening, that I received a call from Michael. He couldn't go into details, but informed me of a mad scientist; by the name of Dr. Tongue, who was attempting to destroy this city."

"That's right!" Julie cut in, "That's what the note said! The one that came with the package on your doorstep, Zeke!"

"Yeah..." Zeke added, "something about... revenge after some experiments of his failed."

"Indeed." Vittorio continued, "And Michael seems to be the only one who knows how to stop those creations of his. However, he claimed that he could not do it alone and would have to seek help. That, I presume, is where you two came in. I do not know if he had a reason for choosing you specifically, but- if everything your uncle has told me is true- then I believe you were the perfect choice."

The teens smiled in response.

"Thanks." Zeke replied.

Harry looked at Julie with a hint of concern.

"I don't think I want to send you two back to monster mashing so soon though." he said, "You look you could do with some rest."

"Yeah... come to think of it, I've been a bit tired since we arrived here from our last mission." Julie replied, "I couldn't really sleep very well last night either. In fact, I've been up since... about the crack of dawn."

"Arrived... dawn..." Zeke muttered.

He snapped his fingers.

"The light of dawn has arrived! That's the phrase we were supposed to say back at the church! ...What?"

**X X X**

"This is what the targets look like." Dr. Weisman told the vampire, as he handed him a photo, "Their names are Julie Summers and Zeke Davis."

The vampire looked at the photo; which showed the teens blasting away at a mob of zombies around them. He licked his lips at the sight of their necks.

_'Can't wait to taste their blood!'_ he thought.

"Right now, they're believed to be taking refuge at the Fort Wilhelm Military base." Dr. Weisman continued, "...And don't get any funny ideas! Dr. Tongue wants them brought here ALIVE, to be given his 'special treatment.' Is that clear?"

The vampire sighed in resignation.

"Yes." he replied, "I will bring them here alive."

He pocketed the photo, grumbling to himself as he walked away.

"If only it wasn't for that blasted artifact, and those stupid religious symbols around those scientists' necks..." he muttered to himself.

**X X X**

To be Continued


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**X X X**

Zeke lay down on the bed, still clothed, staring up at the ceiling as he wondered how and when to make amends to Julie, for his negligence of her in the past. Julie meanwhile, after replacing Lil' Sparky's batteries and setting him down with the water guns, yawned and untied one of her shoes. But as she was about to remove it, she suddenly looked up at Zeke.

"Zeke? You okay?" she asked.

"Hmm? Oh, uh... yeah." Zeke responded, as he snapped back into reality, "I just... I still can't believe all this, you know? I mean, nothing ever happens in this town for years and then suddenly, boom! Zombies, werewolves, evil toys... and WE of all people are the ones who get drafted into doing something about it. Not that I'm complaining or anything. It has been pretty fun overall, if a little frightening at times."

Julie shrugged in agreement, pulled her shoe off, and dropped it onto the floor. Then as she reached for her other shoe, she stopped to think for a moment.

"Hey, Zeke," she said, "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What's up?"

"Are you, by any chance, still good at dancing?"

"Dancing? Hmm... I suppose so. I mean, its been a while, but I think I still remember most of my old moves. Why do you ask?"

"Well... it's kinda weird," Julie responded, as she untied her shoe, "but... I couldn't sleep last night because I had a bad dream. I dreamed that-..."

"Wait..." Zeke interrupted, "what was that noise?"

Julie stopped and looked up when she suddenly heard the fluttering of bat wings nearby. Then she shrieked and fell backwards, onto the bed, as the bat flew towards her face and screeched at her.

"How did that thing get in here?!" Zeke cried, as he and Julie rose to their feet.

After dodging him for a while, Julie finally picked up her shoe off the floor.

"Shoo!" she cried, swinging it at the bat, "Get outta here!"

All of a sudden, the bat opened its mouth and breathed a noxious cloud into Julie's face. She suddenly became very light-headed and fell back onto her bed, dropping her shoe into the floor.

"Julie!"

Zeke quickly grabbed his gun and fired several bursts of holy water, but the bat easily outmaneuvered them and then perched on top of the plastic weapon. Zeke stared in shock, as the bat smiled at him and began to chuckle at his and Julie's vain attempts to fight him off. Soon, Zeke snapped out of it and was about to slap the creature with his free hand. But it was too late. The bat exhaled another puff of the gas that had incapacitated Julie. Zeke struggled to breathe, barely even managing to cough, before fainting onto the floor. The bat then settled down to the floor and transformed into a humanoid form.

"All too easy." the vampire muttered, kicking the water gun away from Zeke's hand, "I would have enjoyed just a small taste of their young blood though."

**X X X**

Zeke gradually came into consciousness, as he felt Julie's bare foot nudging his side.

"Zeke! Hey, Zeke!" she whispered to him, "Wake up!"

Zeke groaned as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Ugh... what happened?" he muttered, "Where are we? And... please don't tell me my arms are chained to the wall."

"Okay." Julie replied, "I won't."

Zeke jerked his arms forward, but the chains- that were indeed shackled to his wrists- wouldn't allow them to go very far. Glancing at Julie, he noticed that she was in the same boat and wasn't looking any happier about it than he was, especially since she was still missing one of her shoes. It was obvious at that point, that they had been thrown into some kind of dungeon.

"I don't know what that bat breathed on us," Julie continued, "but it must've knocked us out."

Zeke sighed and added, "And now we're stuck here, in a dungeon, with no weapons..."

"No Lil' Sparky..."

"And no escape!" uttered a third voice.

There was a puff of smoke in front of the teens; which slowly dissipated to reveal a pale-skinned man in a suit. He had jet black eyes that matched his hair and sharp fangs among his teeth; which clearly showed as he chuckled maniacally.

"Welcome to my castle. I am Count Christof Eveer, lord of this manor and most powerful nosferatu ever to walk this world!"

"So... you're a vampire lord?" Zeke queried.

The Count grimaced a bit and replied, "If you want to put it simply, then yes, I am a vampire lord."

"So does that mean... vampires are invading the city now?"

"Correct! Well... okay, not YET we aren't. But- assuming my unwilling 'master' keeps his end of the bargain- soon, the ritual will summon my subjects to this world and all will tremble before our might!"

The Count began to chuckle once again.

"Wait... ritual?" Julie asked, "What ritual? And... who's this 'master' of yours?"

"Ah, but I have said too much." the Count responded, "Now then... if you'll excuse me, there are only a few hours until dawn. Thus, I must retire now. I hope you've had a good night, because this is the last one that you will ever enjoy!"

The vampire let out another sinister chuckle as he vanished in a puff of smoke. Zeke, meanwhile, continued yanking on the chains. But it was no use. He sighed in resignation.

"Well, I guess this is it then. Sorry I got you into all this, Julie."

Julie looked at her feet and sighed as well.

"Well, Zeke," she said, "if this still matters to you... here's what I dreamed last night."

She paused to take a breath and started to speak again.

"I dreamed that I was being held captive by a mad scientist; who threatened to kill me unless you took part in this dance competition against this... monster he created. And... well..."

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that dance thing didn't go too well." Zeke queried, "Am I right?"

Julie nodded and attempted to wipe a tear away with her forearm.

"It was a weird dream," she continued, "but it frightened me. It just seemed so real and I just couldn't sleep, because I kept worrying for you."

Zeke couldn't help but smile a little, but it quickly faded as guilt over how neglectful he was of her in the past struck him.

"I had a scary dream a while ago too; which also involved you." he replied, "Remember when we ran into your mom when she was fighting the zombies and... that certain one; who... you know...?"

"How could I forget?" Julie responded with a sigh, "That was one of the scariest days of my life! I almost thought I'd never see Mom again, and then I suddenly almost did lose her!"

Zeke sighed.

"You're right about that. Probably more so than you know."

"...What?"

"Well, you see, in my dream..." Zeke went on, "all three of those officers fell victim to that one zombie alone; who almost got you too, right before I woke up. Which is why I sprung into action like that, risking my life to keep that nightmare from coming true."

Julie looked at him in amazement. She was so flattered that, if her wrists weren't chained, she would have placed her hand over her heart.

"You... did all that... for me? Oh, Zeke!"

At that moment, she instantly had a thought.

_'Okay, my mind is made up. He's staying my boyfriend.'_

Zeke had a thought at that point too.

_'Well, it's now or never. Time to make up for being a lousy boyfriend.'_

But just as they each opened their mouths to speak, their attention was suddenly diverted to the cell door opening just a little bit. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then a hand came through the door, holding Julie's missing shoe. The hand's owner tossed the shoe; which landed just a few inches away from Julie, then quickly closed the cell door and left. Julie and Zeke both scoffed in utter disappointment.

"Gee, thanks!" Zeke remarked at the thrower, sarcastically.

Letting out another sigh, Julie reached out with her bare foot and gripped the heel of the shoe with her toes. After pulling the shoe closer to her, she started to insert her foot into it. But she stopped and stared down at it, when her toes felt something hard and metal, with a piece of paper wrapped around it.

"Hey... there's something in it!" she cried.

Zeke watched in amazement as Julie gripped the object with her toes, pulled it out of the shoe, and placed it on the floor. She slipped off her other shoe and then used both feet to unwrap the paper and smooth it out. It was a note, which was wrapped around a key.

"Hmm... I guess we owe him an apology then, huh?" Zeke asked.

"Perhaps."

Julie picked up the note with the toes on her left foot and lifted her leg up to where she could read it.

"Make fun of his speech impediment." she read aloud, "That'll give you your chance."

"Whose speech impediment?"

Julie shrugged in response and continued reading.

"I'll meet you in the lab after you escape. Follow my directions on the back and-..."

Julie stopped reading when the sound of footsteps came towards their cell. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the key and dropped it into her right shoe, before putting her right foot back inside. Then she stuffed the note- and her left foot- into her left shoe, right before the cell door slowly opened. Zeke and Julie then watched as a bald, middle-aged man in a lab coat approached them. To their astonishment, he had a long tongue that dangled from his mouth- not unlike the average boxer breed of dog. He stopped and took a quick moment to appraise the teens, before he began to speak.

"Tho, thethe are the two troublethome teenagerth; who have been thpoiling my planth!" he said, "Not tho rethourthful now, are you?" (So, these are the two troublesome teenagers; who have been spoiling my plans! Not so resourceful now, are you?)

Julie stared in surprise and glanced towards Zeke; who had already started to snicker in amusement at the way Dr. Tongue spoke. She quickly decided to play along and started to giggle along with him.

"Thoon," Dr. Tongue continued, "very thoon, you thall become the very thingth you've been theeking to dethtroy! For onthe I've finithed with your bodieth, you..." (Soon, very soon, you shall become the very things you've been seeking to destroy! For once I've finished with your bodies, you...)

He stopped when he noticed the prisoners starting to laugh even harder.

"What'th tho funny?"

Zeke ceased his laughter, just long enough to speak.

"Uhh... could you do us a favor? Say 'Sufferin' succotash, I just saw a giant mouse!'"

"Thufferin' thuccotath, I jutht thaw a giant mouth. Now what ith tho funny about that?"

The teens laughed even harder, then Julie added, "Okay, okay, now... 'Silly Sally sitting on the sunday stairs!'"

"Thilly Thally thitting on the thun- wait a minute!"

Dr. Tongue glared in anger as the teens continued sharing a laugh at his expense. Finally, he turned around.

"Dr. Weithman... oh, where ith he... Dr. Weithman!" he shouted, as he stormed out of the cell and slammed the door behind him.

"Who's Dr. Weithman?" Zeke asked, as his and Julie's laughter gradually died down, "Or... Weisman... or whatever."

"Doesn't matter." Julie replied, hastily slipping her shoes off again, "Man, that key's cold! Let's just get outta here while we still can!"

After retrieving the key with her toes, Julie lifted up her leg and did her best to transfer the key from her foot to her hand. Finally, just as the strain started to become unbearable, she managed to grasp it in between her fingers. She then took a quick second to return her leg to the floor and breath a quick sigh of temporary relief, before moving the key to a more secure position in her hand- where it would be less likely to be dropped- and poking around for the keyhole.

"That's what I call fancy footwork!" Zeke mused.

Julie smirked and wiggled her toes in response. Then after finding the keyhole, she braced herself for another strain and turned the key as best as she could. Finally, the shackle unlocked and set her arm free, thus allowing her to unlock the other one with ease. With both arms free, Julie stood up and unlocked Zeke's shackles. Zeke sighed with relief and shook his wrists, as Julie retrieved the note and stepped back into her shoes; which she quickly retied.

"So, question is, how do we get through that door?" Zeke asked, as he rose to his feet.

Julie took a moment to think, but was interrupted when the sounds of footsteps returned. But then...

"I've got an idea!" she said.

Dr. Weisman pushed the cell door open slowly, straightened his glasses, and began to read Dr. Tongue's speech as he walked inside.

"Attention captive teenagers:" he read aloud, "For your intervention with Dr. Tongue's plans for this city, you are about to be made-..."

He suddenly looked up in shock.

"Hey, what the...?" he cried out, "They're gone!"

"What?!" shouted Dr. Tongue; who was eavesdropping from outside the cell.

Dr. Tongue ran inside and the two of them looked around the area, but all they could see were the now-open shackles that previously held their prisoners.

"I don't underthtand it! They were jutht here, mere minutheth ago!" (I don't understand it! They were just here, mere minutes ago!"

Suddenly, without warning, the cell door slammed shut behind the two scientists and was quickly locked.

"So long, suckers!" Zeke shouted from outside, as he took out his 3D glasses and put them on, "Or, should I say... tho long, thuckerth!"

With that, Zeke and Julie ran off to the laboratory, laughing at the scientists' expense.

"Hmmph... hiding behind the door, while our backs were turned." Dr. Weisman muttered, "They're quite clever, for seventeen-year-olds."

"Yeth... but how did they ethcape from thothe thackleth?" Dr. Tongue asked. (Yes... but how did they escape from those shackles?)

Dr. Weisman shifted uncomfortably, as he replied, "Search me."

"Nethermind. Jutht get thith door open, tho I can thtop them!" (Nevermind. Just get this door open, so I can stop them!)

**X X X**

Julie scratched her chin, as she looked at the small map on the back of the note, and looked back up at the wall; where three egyptian coffins were lined up.

"Hmm... according to this, the lab entrance should be through here."

"Must be a secret entrance." Zeke replied, "Maybe it's through one of these coffins."

He cautiously opened one, then cried out in shock and slammed it shut as a mummified corpse started to fall forward.

"Sorry, King Tut!" he mused, "Go back to sleep!"

Julie smirked at him and tried knocking on the other two coffins, while Zeke caught his breath. One of the coffins made a hollow sound. She opened it and, sure enough, there was nothing inside but a false panel with a red button; which she pressed.

"Err... I was gonna try that." Zeke told her, as the panel opened.

"Sure, Zeke."

The teens walked through the false coffin and looked around the laboratory. Zeke lifted his glasses in amazement.

"Whoa..." he said, "this place is huge! And get a load of all this stuff!"

"Yeah!" Julie agreed, "I'd be impressed, if it wasn't all being used for evil."

Soon, Zeke spotted a strange-looking purple gun-like weapon on the wall. Curiously, he approached it.

"Hmm... I wonder what this thing-..."

"Thtop right there!" a voice shouted.

Zeke and Julie were startled to see Dr. Tongue standing on a balcony overhead.

"What?!" Julie cried, "How did you...?"

"There'll be time for exthplanationth later. Now then, be a good pair of tetht thubjecth and return to your thellth. Otherwithe I'll have to uthe forthe!" (There'll be time for explanations later. Now then, be a good pair of test subjects and return to your cells. Otherwise, I'll have to use force!)

Zeke snickered, still amused by the way Dr. Tongue spoke.

"Never!" he shouted back, lowering his glasses, "We're NOT your test subjects, you hear? Our town may have its problems, sure, but we still enjoy living there and we're not going to let you destroy it!"

"And we're certainly NOT going to help you destroy it either!" Julie added.

"Yeah!"

"Very well. Tho be it!" Dr. Tongue responded, pulling out a remote control and pressing a button, "Awaken, Frankie!"

Dr. Tongue began laughing maniacally, as a medical bed started to rotate and turn upward. The teens then stared in horror as a white sheet fell off the occupant.

"...You've gotta be kidding me!" Zeke blustered.

Strapped to the bed was a pale, green-skinned, six-foot-tall humanoid person, with bolts stuck in his neck. He slowly opened his eyes and started to groan, as bolts of electricity surged through his body. Dr. Tongue pressed another button on his remote and the straps came undone.

"Now, Frankie, go forth and teach thothe meddling teenagerth a leththon!" (Now, Frankie, go forth and teach those meddling teenagers a lesson!)

'Frankie' grunted in response and raised his arms, before slowly moving towards the teenagers; who backed away in fear.

"You know, Zeke..." Julie told him, "this might not be a bad time to see what that weapon over there does. Err... Zeke?"

When she looked around for him, she noticed he was already grabbing the weapon off the wall.

"Way ahead of ya, Julie!" he called back.

With the weapon in his hands, Zeke ran in front of the monster and pointed it at him.

"Eat THIS, creep!" he shouted, "...Whatever THIS happens to be..."

As he pulled the trigger, a gout of flame shot out from the muzzle and engulfed the monster; who began to roar in pain. Zeke released the trigger and stared back in amazement, with Julie, as the monster stood there and flailed his arms about. Finally, he fell onto the floor and grew silent as his body continued to burn. Dr. Tongue was stunned.

"No! NO!" he cried, "What have you done to my greatetht creathion?!"

He growled with anger and pulled a flask out of his labcoat pocket.

"You won't get away with thith!" he shouted, before drinking the contents of the flask.

Dr. Tongue started to chuckle, then suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke. The teens stared in confusion, until they distinctly heard his voice from the other side of the castle.

"Oh, blatht it! That wath my teleportathion pothion! Now where did I leave my thecret weapon pothionth?" (Oh, blast it! That was my teleportation potion! Now where did I leave my secret weapon potions?)

The teens looked down at Frankie; who was now reduced to a smoldering pile of ashes, then at the flamethrower in Zeke's hands.

"So... a flamethrower, huh?" Julie commented, "Cool."

"Don't you mean 'hot?'" Zeke corrected her, with a chuckle.

Julie smirked and was about to slap his shoulder, when she and Zeke suddenly heard footsteps behind them and the sound of a pair of hands slowly clapping. Turning on their heels, the teens were surprised to see their mysterious helper approaching them.

"Well done, you two." he told them, "You've certainly put a large dent in Dr. Tongue's plans now."

"Err... thanks." Zeke replied, "Umm... not to sound ungrateful or anything, but... who are you anyway? And why are you helping us?"

"I'm afraid I still can't tell you. I must maintain my cover until Dr. Tongue is stopped for good. Besides, I believe you two have more important things to worry about at the moment."

"He's right, Zeke." Julie said, "We have to stop that vampire, or the world will be swarming with them."

"Yes." Michael responded, "Fortunately though, you've still got about two weeks until that ritual of his is supposed to commence. Furthermore, I believe Father Vittorio may know of a way to help you put a stop to it."

Michael then reached into his pocket and pulled out Lil' Sparky.

"But for now," he concluded, handing it back to Julie, "get back to base for some rest and keep doing what you're doing. I'll try to help you again, when and if I can. Good luck."

The teens watched as Michael ran out the secret entrance to the lab and vanished from sight. Then Julie turned to Zeke.

"He does seem to know a bit too much about everything that's been going on." she said, "Don't you think?"

Zeke nodded in response, as he put the flamethrower down. Then he let out a light yawn and took off his glasses.

"Well, it doesn't matter." he told Julie, "I'm thinking a good night's sleep- or what's left of one- sounds pretty appealing right now."

Unable to argue with that, Julie promptly activated the door. As they started to go through it, they each suddenly had a thought.

_'Oh, crap... I forgot to apologize to her for...'_

_'Aw, damn it... I forgot to tell him that I...'_

After a brief pause, they both thought, _'Oh well, some other day.'_

And with that, they raced through the door.

**X X X**

To be Continued


	15. Chapter 15

Author's note: Once again, I apologize for taking so long to upload a new chapter. This one was not easy to write though, believe me. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it.

**Chapter 15**

**X X X**

Father Vittorio took a moment to absorb the teens' story. Then he finally spoke.

"I'm afraid I do know of this Count that you speak of." he said, "Or at least I've heard of him, from a story that- up until recently- I always dismissed as some crazy legend. It was believed that he was once defeated by an Egyptian vampire hunter; who used a powerful artifact to banish the Count's subjects- also vampires- into another dimension, and then used a different artifact to seal the Count within his coffin."

"Cool." Zeke mused, "So what happened to those artifacts?"

"Well, they say that the vampire hunter was buried with them in his tomb, somewhere in Egypt. I would guess that this Dr. Tongue must have discovered the tomb's location and stolen one of those artifacts."

"Hmm... so the best way we could hope to stop Count Eveer, would be to find the other artifact then?" Julie asked.

"That would probably be the best idea." Vittorio replied.

Before any of them could say another word, Sergeant Weber entered the room.

"Sorry to interrupt," he told them, "but the Lieutenant has asked to see you. Says there's something even stranger than usual going on."

"Okay. We'll be right there." Julie responded.

As the Corporal left, Vittorio told the teens, "I will keep looking into this legend and see if I can find any more information that can help you."

He then looked around and brought his voice down to a whisper.

"And it would probably be best if we keep this our little secret. I do not wish to frighten the survivors here any more than they already are."

"Yeah, good idea." Zeke replied with a nod, "Thanks, Father."

As they left, Julie nudged Zeke's shoulder and asked, "Speaking of which, have you seen Tina lately?"

"Oh yeah, I know. Pretty emo, huh? In fact..."

Julie watched as Zeke took his 3D glasses out of his pocket and start to speak again.

"Really, Zeke? You really want to go there?"

"Aw, come on. Just this once? It'll be funny."

Julie sighed.

"Alright, fine." she said, "Let's hear it."

"Right, as I was saying... I'd say she's..."

He put on his 3D glasses and continued, "Emo-tionally disturbed. YEEAAAH! ...Yeah, okay, I'm sorry. That was pretty terrible."

**X X X**

Meanwhile, at the Police station...

The Police Chief sat at his desk, lovingly cradling a chocolate doughnut in his hand, as he noted how order in the city was slowly- but surely- being restored. As he took a bite, he propped his feet up on the desk and thought about how good it felt to relax a bit, after all the stress that the recent monster outbreaks had caused. But this moment would soon end, when there was a knock on his office door. Startled, the Chief began to choke down the doughnut bite and sat straight up, putting the rest of the doughnut down on a napkin nearby. After a bit of coughing, he managed to clear his throat.

"Come in." he said, hastily rubbing his eyes.

The door opened and Mary walked into the office.

"Sir," she said, barely containing her own breath, "we just got an anonymous tip about the Mad Cat gang!"

The Chief stared up at her.

"You mean those thugs who escaped from Federal Prison, two months ago?"

Mary nodded.

"According to the caller," she continued, "they're here in Jakobville!"

"Here?!"

The Chief paused a moment to take that in. Then...

"I want all available officers on this at once!" he ordered, "Let no cop rest until the Mad Cats have been brought in! Dead, undead, or alive!"

"Yes, Sir!"

Mary left the office, then stopped.

_'Dead, undead, or alive?'_ she thought.

Then the door opened again.

"Err... scratch that." the Chief told her, "If they're undead... you know what to do."

"Right, Chief."

**X X X**

"I'm sending you to the Jakobville High School today." Harry told the teens, "Most of the area seems to have been abandoned, but we're getting reports of something crazy going on at the football field. So head on over there and get to the bottom of it. And if you see any survivors there, you know what to do."

The teens saluted in response, and Julie began setting Lil' Sparky's coordinates. Zeke meanwhile checked and refilled their water guns.

"Jakobville High School..." Julie muttered, "alright, coordinates are set."

"And we're locked and loaded." Zeke told her, as he capped Julie's weapon and handed it to her.

With that, Julie activated the door and the teens proceeded through it. Soon after it disappeared, Sergeant Weber walked in the room and looked around for the teens.

"Err... have those two already left, Sir?" he asked.

"Yes, I just sent them to investigate the High School situation. Why, Sergeant?"

Weber responded by holding up the radio that Zeke had left behind in the bunker.

"Oh. Crap..."

**X X X**

Zeke and Julie stared in confusion, as a football game unfolded before them. There was no audience anywhere in sight, but the players were still playing and the cheerleaders were still going about their routine. Zeke looked at Julie and pointed at the game with his thumb.

"Playing football at a time like this?" he wondered aloud.

Julie just shrugged. Then, as they turned back, Julie took a closer look.

"There's... something strange about those players." she muttered, "They're moving... kinda funny and don't seem to be aware of their surroundings."

"Yeah... and check out the cheerleaders. ...No, really! Look at 'em! They look like they're doing this... unwillingly."

Soon, they found out just how right Zeke was.

"Gimme a T!"

"T!"

"Gimme an I!"

"I!"

"Gimme a G!"

"G!"

"Gimme an-..."

The head cheerleader stopped when she noticed Zeke and Julie.

"Oh, thank goodness!" she cried, as she ran up to them, "Help us!"

The other cheerleaders stopped and stared at her in confusion. Then one of them shouted, "Hey! Emily, wait!"

Emily grabbed a startled Zeke and cried, "You've gotta help us, before they-... oh no! They're coming back!"

"Who?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, who's coming back?" Zeke asked as well.

No sooner than they asked, a huge flying saucer suddenly materialized in the sky. Emily ran behind Zeke and trembled, as seven green men in gray spacesuits appeared and started uttering something indecipherable.

Julie looked at Zeke and said, "We had to ask."

She turned back to face the green men, barely managing to dodge in time, as one of them pointed a pistol-type weapon at her and shot a small red sphere in their direction. Instinctively, Julie returned fire, blasting the alien with a stream of holy water. The alien shrieked in pain and then disintegrated, right before his comrades' eyes.

"...Unholy aliens?" Zeke mused, as the aliens began to mumble among themselves.

"I don't know..." Julie replied, "maybe they're vulnerable to any kind of liquids."

"Fair enough. Let's blast 'em!"

But before the teens could fire on them, the six remaining aliens suddenly vanished out of sight. One of them suddenly appeared nearby and fired at Julie. This time, however, she was struck with the red ball; which grew larger and encased her inside before vanishing away.

"Julie!" Zeke cried, "How... what the...?"

Enraged, he fired a stream at the alien; who again vanished from sight. Then the red ball reappeared and vanished again, this time leaving a dumbfounded Julie standing in its place.

"What happened?"

"I... I think they brought me aboard their ship!" Julie replied, "But then they sent me back, for some reason."

Zeke turned to face a still-shaking Emily.

"It's you they're after, isn't it?" he asked.

Emily nodded.

"They made us dress like this." she said, "And they forced us to... you know..."

Julie looked at the football players; who were still playing and seemingly oblivious to the aliens'- or anyone else's- presence. But she had little time to wonder about that, before noticing another alien approaching them. She quickly shot a stream at him, only to have him vanish away. Then she noticed him appearing again a distance away.

"I think they're on to us, Zeke." Julie told him, as she took out Lil' Sparky and checked his radar screen, "And... I think we have another problem."

Zeke lifted his glasses to look at the screen. It had suddenly occured to the teens that the 'cheerleaders' had scattered around the football field in fear, and that the aliens were now pursuing those ladies.

"Great." he replied, pushing his glasses back down, "Well, we better at least *her* out of here. Fire up the door, Julie!"

Julie nodded and activated the door.

"Head through that door." she told Emily, "Quick!"

Emily stared at it, seemingly hesitant at first. But when she noticed another alien appearing close by, she screamed and dove through the door; which Julie then deactivated.

"That's one down, and... how many to go?" Zeke asked, as he fired at the alien; who teleported away.

"Looks like, there are... nine 'cheerleaders' left." Julie responded, checking the radar again, "Come on, let's go get them! Then we'll... *think* about helping those players, if we can."

Zeke nodded, and off they went. Along the way, Julie took another glance at the football players.

_'There's something... disturbingly familiar about them.'_ she thought.

**X X X**

"What is going on down there?!" the alien Captain asked his crew, "Where are those Earth women, and why aren't they doing as we instructed?"

"It's these two other teenage humans." replied one of the crew members, "They're sending the women away through some kind of portal. Our men are trying to stop them, but they're armed with some kind of... liquid-shooting weapons!"

The Captain glared at the monitor; which- upon zooming in- showed Julie and Zeke standing near the glowing exit door and firing away at the aliens; who teleported away in fear of getting disintegrated. Zeke then pointed towards the door with his gun and beckoned with his other hand for the group of 'cheerleaders' to head through it; which they did. Afterwards, the door disappeared. The Captain pounded the control panel in anger.

"They won't get away with this!" he shouted, "Destroy those meddling teenagers and bring those Earth men aboard! We'll find some new women elsewhere, to abduct later. ...And someone please get to work, fixing that wretched hatch!"

**X X X**

"That all of 'em?" Zeke asked Julie; who checked the radar.

"Hmm... not quite." she responded, "There are still two left, over-..."

Julie was suddenly interrupted, as a bolt of lightning struck the ground nearby.

"Yikes!" Zeke cried out, jumping back in shock, "Lightning? I don't remember hearing any thunder."

"Umm... I don't think it's coming from the clouds, Zeke."

Zeke lowered his glasses and looked up at the sky, just in time to see the UFO that had appeared earlier charging up its lightning guns and preparing to fire again. He and Julie barely had time to avoid a second blast that came at them soon afterwards.

"Call it a hunch," Julie told Zeke, "but I'm guessing someone's a bit miffed about us rescuing their prisoners."

"Yeah, well, they picked the wrong planet to abduct people from!"

Zeke took aim and fired at the UFO, but it was too far up in the sky for the water to reach.

"Crap." he said.

He reached for his radio; which only now did he realize wasn't clipped to his belt.

"Where's the radio?"

"I thought *you* had it." Julie replied.

"So did I. ...Well, that's inconvenient. Guess we'll have to improvise again."

Zeke took a quick moment to scan his surroundings, until he finally spotted what looked like a six-pack of cola that had been left on the bleachers. He motioned for Julie to follow and the two of them ran towards the bleachers as fast as they could. As they crossed the football field, however, Zeke suddenly glanced up and noticed the football falling towards him. Instinctively, he caught the ball and quickly realized that the football players were now coming right for him.

"Uh-oh..."

"Quick! Toss it, Zeke! ...No, not to me!"

Julie hurriedly tossed the ball; which wound up getting stuck in the opening of one of the players' helmets, and he was quickly dogpiled by the other players. She sighed with relief and ran to the bleachers, where Zeke was nervously tugging his shirt collar.

"Sorry about that." he sheepishly said.

"Forget about it, just do whatever you were planning to do."

Zeke nodded and grabbed the six-pack; which he soon noticed only had four cans left. Shaking up one of those cans, he waited for the UFO to get just close enough before popping open and throwing the can as hard as he could. Aside from getting the ship a bit wet and sticky though, the 'grenade' didn't have much effect. Zeke started to groan in disappointment, when Julie suddenly noticed the ship's hatch constantly opening and closing on its own.

"Zeke, look!" she cried, pointing at it, "Gimme one!"

Zeke handed her one of the cans; which she quickly shook up. Aiming for the hatch, Julie opened the can and threw it just after the hatch closed. It opened again, just in time for the can to land inside. Soon, there was a distinct sound of soda fizzing and aliens screaming, along with some short-circuiting. Zeke and Julie looked on in relief, only to suddenly notice two of the persistent aliens coming their way. After dodging an incoming red sphere, Zeke quickly handed the other two sodas to Julie.

"Quick, gimme your gun! I'll cover you!" he told her.

Julie gave him her water gun and began shaking the two cans, while Zeke opened fire on the aliens. After another well-timed throw, the UFO's crew once again began to scream in agony and the equipment started to malfunction. Finally, the ship started to limp away from the football stadium very slowly.

"Oh no, you don't!" Julie muttered, moving up to the bleachers top row.

Popping open the last soda can, she threw it with all her might. The can sailed through the air towards the open hatch of the alien ship, landing inside just before the hatch could close. There was a great explosion inside the ship; which now began to plummet towards the earth. Zeke ran up to the top of the bleachers with Julie, to watch as the ship crashed to the ground.

"Stee-rike three! Yer out!" he mused, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.

Julie smiled, as Zeke handed her gun back to her.

"I always was better at baseball than football." she responded.

As Zeke and Julie descended the bleachers, they heard a noise behind them. Turning around, they saw their six alien pursuers at the top bench, staring down at their crashed ship. The aliens barely had enough time to absorb what had just happened, before turning around to find themselves getting blasted by water. A few high-pitched screams of agony later, and they were nothing but piles of dust. The teens breathed a collective sigh of relief. Then, as Julie checked Lil' Sparky for the last two cheerleaders' locations, she and Zeke suddenly noticed the football players were now groaning and holding their heads in pain. Zeke glanced at Lil' Sparky's radar screen.

"Hmm... those cheerleaders aren't too far from here." he observed, "You go get them, I'll get these guys."

Julie nodded and they split up. Zeke ran up to the field, as the players started taking off their helmets.

"What's goin' on, man?" one of them wondered aloud.

"Yeah, what we wearin' these uniforms for?"

Before Zeke could speak, one of the men pointed at him and said, "And who's this geek?"

"Uhh... I believe this 'geek' just saved all your lives." Zeke retorted, removing his glasses and pocketing them, "You're welcome?"

"Oh, you think you're some kinda smartass, eh?"

As the men began to surround Zeke, it suddenly dawned on him that these weren't real football players. He cleared his throat.

"Err... hold on now... I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot here."

One of the thugs grabbed Zeke's water gun.

"Hey, I need that!"

"Oh, you want this toy?" the thug replied, "Why don't ya empty yo' pockets and show us how much it worth to ya?"

Suddenly, Zeke deeply regretted leaving his radio behind. As well as not going to help the two women with Julie; who soon came running to the field as she wondered, "Just what the heck is keeping... Zeke!"

Taking a good look at one of the players, she finally recognized them.

_'Oh my God!'_ she thought, _'It's... the Mad Cats!'_

Suddenly, Julie remembered what her mother told her back at the Police station.

_'If you run into any trouble,- anything you can't handle- give me a call.'_

"Don't make me ask twice now!" the thug pressed Zeke.

Summoning up her courage, Julie approached the field and took out her phone.

"You get away from him!" she shouted to the gang.

The thugs all turned to face her. One of them smirked as he noticed the phone in her hand.

"Yeah? What'cha gonna do, little girl?" he asked, "Call your mommy?"

"As a matter of fact," Julie sternly replied, "that's exactly what I'm going to do!"

The thugs burst into laughter, as Julie pressed the button that sent a call to her mother's cellphone. Zeke, on the other hand, smiled with relief. After two rings, Julie heard Mary's voice answer: "Yes?"

"Hi Mom. Zeke and I are at the High School football field and we've spotted the Mad Cat gang."

"...You have?"

"That's right, they're here. Oh, and did I mention they're currently trying to rob Zeke?"

The thugs soon stopped laughing, as the sound of sirens filled the air. Before they knew it, several Police cars burst through a chain link fence nearby and stopped just a few feet away from the thugs. Two officers emerged from each car and pointed their guns at them.

"Hands up, NOW!" Mary shouted, her gun drawn on the thugs, "Don't any of you move!"

The thugs trembled and slowly put their hands up. Zeke then snatched back his water gun, gave the lead thug a good water spray in the crotch, and chuckled as he ran back to Julie and hugged her.

"I'll be honest, I've kinda lost count of how many times we've saved each other." he told her, as the Police proceeded to arrest the thugs, "But I'm guessing this one makes it about even."

With a smirk, Mary promptly holstered her gun and turned to the teens.

"You two never cease to surprise me." she said, "First you're saving the city from undead monsters, and now you've helped save the city from a group of monsters that are among the living."

"Aw, it was nothin'." Zeke replied, "We were just at the right place at the right time."

"Yeah." Julie added, glancing at Lil' Sparky's radar, "Speaking of which, we should probably get going, now that everyone else has been accounted for."

"Right. We'll take it from here." Mary said, "Wouldn't want to keep your uncle worrying about you, per the norm. You two take care. And if there's any way we can thank you for all your help, let me know."

Zeke thought about that, while Julie fired up Lil' Sparky's door.

"Hmm... now that you mention it..." he muttered, "nah, that'd be too much. Well... maybe-..."

He stopped when Julie cleared her throat and pointed towards the door.

"Oh, right! Err... I'll get back to you on that. Bye, Mrs. Summers!"

Zeke and Julie waved to Mary and ran through the door; which closed and vanished away.

"Man! What's in that stuff we been smokin'?" one thug remarked, upon seeing the door disappear.

"Quiet, you!" shouted the officer who pushed him into the back seat of his car.

**X X X**

Later...

The alien Captain and his surviving crew members crawled their way out of the burning wreckage of their ship, just as several other UFOs landed nearby. Soon afterwards, a number of aliens in blue uniforms materialized in front of them with laser pistols pointed at them.

"Freeze!" they shouted, "Hands in the air!"

The Captain and his crewmates nervously complied, as one alien- dressed in a suit with a trenchcoat and hat- emerged from the crowd and approached the Captain.

"Detective Ziktor!" the Captain blustered.

"That's right." the alien Detective responded, "I've got you now, 'Captain Zander.' Or should I say... Dr. X!"

The 'Captain' growled as Ziktor took hold of his face and yanked it off, revealing it to be a mask.

"Thought you could fool us, by disguising as an Air Force Captain, huh?" he continued, "Thought you'd get away safely to the Milky Way galaxy, did you? Well, you thought wrong! You and your lackeys have been abducting people from all over the universe for far too long, and now you're coming with us. Take 'em away, boys!"

After securing their new passengers aboard their ships, the alien Police began to lift off.

"Shouldn't we recover Dr. X's ship, Sir?" one officer asked Ziktor.

"Nah." he replied, "If I know humans, they'll probably just dismiss it as one of those... weather balloon thingies. ...whatever that is."

**X X X**

To be Continued


	16. Chapter 16

Copyright note: the song, My Boyfriend's Back (c) The Angels

Secret Agent Man (c) Johnny Rivers

**Chapter 16**

**X X X**

Julie walked up to the bunker door, stopping just as she distinctly heard the sound of music on the other side. Curiously, she opened the door slowly. To her surprise, Zeke was dancing to some music playing on a radio.

"What made you think I'd believe all your lies?" he sang along, as he continued dancing, "You're a big man now, but I'll cut you down-..."

He stopped when he noticed Julie watching him.

"Oh... hey." he uttered sheepishly.

Julie smirked, as Zeke reached over and turned the radio off.

"Well, I guess you've still got it then." she commented.

"Yeah, well... I was just thinking about that dream you told me about. The one where I was doing a dance off. Just thought I should... you know, be prepared in case it does eventually happen."

"I see. So... 'My Boyfriend's Back', huh?"

"Eh... it wasn't exactly my choice of song, but somehow it seemed strangely appropriate. Which is more than I can say for the previous song."

"Right, well anyway..." Julie responded, fishing a note out of her pocket, "I was just talking to Father Vittorio. Apparently, he's found the location of the tomb, where that Egyptian vampire hunter was buried. Not only that, but he also got this note from his- and our- anonymous friend; who-"

"Err... hold on." Zeke interrupted, "We should probably give him a nickname. Like we did with Lil' Sparky."

"Hmm... okay... how about Mr. X?"

"Nah, that's a tad predictable. How about Mr. Y?"

Julie shrugged.

"Whatever, Mr. Y it is. So as I was saying, Father Vittorio gave me this note from Mr. Y; which not only has the coordinates of the tomb, but also a map that leads to where the guy was buried."

She handed Zeke the map and he looked it over.

"Wow..." he said, "whoever Mr. Y is, he must really hate Dr. Tongue and Count Eveer. Not that I blame him."

Julie held up her hand and peeked around outside the bunker door, to make sure there was nobody else within earshot, then took out Lil' Sparky.

"We better keep quiet about this though." she reminded Zeke in a whisper, as she punched in the coordinates, "Nobody else, but Vittorio, should know about this."

"Right, right. So I guess this should be one of those... uhh... what do you call it..."

"Black ops missions?"

"Yeah." Zeke replied, putting on his glasses and grabbing the water guns, "So we better be careful what we say, or we'll give ourselves away. Odds are, we won't-"

"Zeke!"

"Sorry, sorry."

With that, Julie activated the door and the two of them quickly went through it.

**X X X**

"I told you, you should've let me suck their blood!" Eveer told Dr. Tongue, "I could have made them loyal servants to your cause."

Dr. Tongue sighed, not knowing what to say, as he leaned on the rail of his laboratory balcony. The Count glanced at Dr. Tongue's neck and took a quick look around. Then he opened his mouth, baring his fangs, and slowly moved closer.

"Wait... that'th it!" Dr. Tongue cried.

As Dr. Tongue turned around, the Count quickly closed his mouth and stood up straight, with his hands behind his back.

"If they won't be my tetht thubjecth," he continued, walking away from the balcony, "then we'll jutht make them bring me thome!" (If they won't be my test subjects, then we'll just make them bring me some!)

"So you wish for me to suck their blood then?"

Dr. Tongue stopped and replied, "If that'th what it taketh to make them work for me, then yeth." (If that's what it takes to make them work for me, then yes.)

As he was saying this, the Count snuck up on the mad scientist and made another attempt to bite his neck. But once again, he was forced to abort and feign innocence as Dr. Tongue turned to face him again.

"And onthe you've got them under your control, I want you to thend them after thothe people they've rethcued and capture thome of them for me, to uthe for my new tetht thubjecth. Underthtand?" (And once you've got them under your control, I want you to send them after those people they've resuced and capture some of them for me, to use for my new test subjects. Understand?)

"No need to tell me again, my master. I will get right on it."

With that, Count Eveer went on his way in disappointment.

"Oh, and one more thing."

"Yes?" the Count inquired, turning back to face Dr. Tongue.

He then screamed in pain and fell backwards onto the floor, as the mad scientist whipped out a gold crucifix and pressed it against the Count's face.

"Don't ever try to thuck my blood ever again. Underthtand?!" (Don't ever try to suck my blood ever again. Understand?!)

The Count rubbed his face and nodded, as he picked himself up off the floor. As Dr. Tongue turned back to the balcony rail and pocketed his crucifix, Count Eveer turned and walked away in frustration.

"Patience, Christof." he muttered to himself, "Just a few more days, then the ritual will commence. And then you won't have to be anyone's servant anymore!"

**X X X**

Julie cautiously turned around the corner, pointing her gun in front of her and slowly walking forward. Zeke, who was calmly following her, sighed.

"Come on, seriously, what are you so afraid of in here?" he asked.

"Zeke... we've already had to face two undead monstrosities and a vampire- who is still at large and will be summoning even more vampires soon- to say nothing of all the zombies we've had to deal with, and you're surprised about me being nervous in a place full of dead people?"

"...Okay, I guess you kinda have a point. But come on, we're in Egypt right now. Whatever Dr. Tongue did to those cadavers back home, couldn't have followed us all the way..."

He stopped when he heard the sound of footsteps around the corner.

"Then again..." he muttered, holding his gun ready.

Zeke waited, as the footsteps came closer, while Julie checked Lil' Sparky's radar.

"Uhh... Zeke?"

But before she could stop him, Zeke jumped out and fired... startling a man in a yellow explorer's outfit.

"Oh, whoops..." he said, sheepishly, "sorry, Mister."

The explorer brushed the water off his face and replied, "It's quite alright, no harm done. Although, I am a bit curious as to what praytell brings you two here?"

"Err... well, we uh..."

"School project." Julie cut him off.

"...Yeah, that's it."

"Hmm, I see. Doing research on some of the great Egyptian pharohs then? Well, I wish you luck in your endeavors here. Though I wouldn't advise spending too much time in this place. Err... by the way, you two wouldn't happen to have found the way out of here, would you?"

Thinking quickly, Julie held Lil' Sparky behind her back and pointed it towards the wall.

"Oh, yeah." she replied, activating the door, "It's right over there."

"Ah, jolly good then." the explorer responded, "Well, you two take care. I've got to be going. Cheerio!"

Julie waited for the explorer to pass through the door, then deactivated it and pocketed Lil' Sparky.

"You didn't just send him back to base, did you?" Zeke asked.

"Nah, I haven't changed the coordinates yet. He'll just be sent to the outside of the tomb, where we arrived. Anyway, let's keep going."

With that, Zeke and Julie proceeded through the tomb. As they passed through a certain doorway though, they were startled by the sound of a stone door slamming shut behind them.

"...That's not a good sign." Zeke remarked.

Then there was another distinct creaking sound, followed by a low groan.

"Zeke, am I the only one who just heard something go 'uuugh' over there?" Julie asked.

"I'm afraid not."

"So... I guess you owe me an apology then?"

Before Zeke could respond, they suddenly saw it. A walking, rotted, mummified corpse slowly shambling its way towards them. They stared at it, as it slowly raised its arm at them and let out a loud noise as if to threaten them. Finally, as it came within range, Zeke and Julie nodded at each other and opened fire. After a few quick blasts of holy water, the mummy finally exploded, leaving a pile of bones and rotted bandages.

"Hmm... took a little more than usual," Zeke observed, "but it still works."

Julie then thought back to their time at Dr. Tongue's castle, when they found some mummies just outside the lab entrance.

"Hey, Zeke... you don't think maybe Dr. Tongue took some of the mummies from here and... turned them into..."

Zeke thought about that briefly, and was about to respond with a "Nah." But another voice suddenly answered instead, "You are correct, my dear!"

Startled, Zeke and Julie turned on their heels. Floating in the air in front of them was a glowing white orb, with a face that chuckled at them.

"The Count!" the two of them cried together.

"Correct again, my friends." he replied, "You see, I wanted to make up for my castle's bad accommodations, so I decided to invite you back for dinner. But since you weren't home and I had my dining room all set up, I invited a few of your friends instead."

Julie gasped.

"The survivors!" she cried.

"You monster!" Zeke snapped at him.

"Oh, don't worry." the Count replied, "They're alive and well, for now. Fortunately for you, Dr. Tongue has other plans in store for them. However, I must confess that I have been yearning for some fresh human blood lately. Those pouches of medical blood that Dr. Tongue has supplied me with won't last forever, after all. Besides that, I will be needing help to complete the ritual I've planned. Which reminds me..."

Count Eveer paused as more faint moaning noises reached the teens' ears.

"Dr. Tongue and I knew you two would come here, seeking that little toy that would disrupt my ritual, so we borrowed a few of the mummified bodies here and made some improvements to..."

"English?" Zeke cut him off.

The Count sighed.

"We injected the corpses with chemicals that made them reanimate. Must you take the fun out of everything?! Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I have some preparations to make. Have fun with your new friends. And do not 'Count' on stopping me!"

The orb slowly vanished away as Count Eveer laughed.

"Okay, that's the worst pun I've ever heard." Zeke remarked.

He paused to look up, just in time to see two more mummies coming their way.

"And... we should probably do something about those guys."

The mummies continued shambling towards Zeke and Julie, but after a few water blasts from their guns, they were reduced to nothing but bones and bandages.

Julie sighed.

"So not only is the Count onto us," she complained, "but those people that we risked our lives to rescue are in danger again."

"Yeah, well... I know this situation looks bad," Zeke replied, "but it certainly won't get any better unless we find that artifact and bring it back to base."

"Yeah, you're right. Shoot... where's that map?"

Zeke looked around, and soon found the map; which Julie had dropped on the floor. He picked it up and lifted his 3D glasses, to read it.

"Hmm... this can't be right." he muttered, scratching his head with the barrel of his gun, "I don't remember passing by that area."

Julie glanced at the map in his hand, then smirked and turned the map rightside up.

"Of course." Zeke mused, "Wouldn't be me otherwise, would it? This way then. Come on!"

Keeping on their toes, Zeke and Julie continued through the tomb halls, while stopping every now and then to blast an occasional mummy. Finally, they came to the fabled hero's burial chamber.

"There!" Julie cried, pointing to a sarcophagus that had been recently disturbed.

As they ran towards it, Julie stopped to blast away at another approaching mummy. Zeke, meanwhile, pushed open the coffin lid and looked inside. When the mummy finally exploded, Julie shook her now-nearly-empty water gun.

"Got it, Zeke?" she asked, glancing in his direction.

From the sarcophagus, Zeke pulled out what looked like a gold music box. Lifting his glasses, he briefly looked it over.

"So, this is it, huh?" he mumbled, "Wonder how it works."

They didn't have much time to wonder though, as five more mummies suddenly stormed into the room. Startled, Zeke tumbled backwards, momentarily losing his grip on the music box. He barely managed to grab onto the lid with the palms of his hands, causing the box to open. Suddenly, a bright light emerged from the box and an ear-shattering musical tune began to play. After a few seconds, Zeke quickly shut the box. Then, to the teens' surprise, the mummies that had entered the room were now replaced with piles of bones and rotted bandages. Zeke and Julie stared back in amazement. Then they once again looked at each other with a smile, as Zeke gave the music box a light toss in the air and caught it.

"Well," he said, "looks like we've got our secret weapon then. Let's get back and get ready to put it to use."

"I hear that." Julie responded, "And hope nothing happens to those captured survivors too."

"Oh, right... yeah, that too."

She took out Lil' Sparky, set the coordinates to the base, and activated the door; which she and Zeke promptly walked through.

**X X X**

As he struggled in vain with his restraints, Trevor shouted to the Count, "You'll never get away with this, you... you wannabe Dracula!"

"Yeah!" Tina added, from one of the other cells, "Like, Zeke and Julie will totally come to save us and stop you, or some junk!"

Christof chuckled in response.

"Those two will save you." he remarked, "That's a good one. They will not survive much longer against Dr. Tongue's creations; which by the way, you will soon become the latest additions to."

"You're insane!" Emily snapped at him.

"Yes, I know. Now, if you'll excuse me, it is now nearing sunrise and I must get some sleep. Farewell!"

As he walked away from the prison, the count mumbled to himself, "Wannabe Dracula! Hmmph! I can see I'm going to have to teach that prisoner some manners. Just what has that 'Count Dracula' character got on me anyway? *I* do not say 'bleh bleh bleh!'"

**X X X**

To be Continued


	17. Chapter 17

Author's note: I apologize once again, for taking way too long to post a new chapter, but... aw, just read it.

**Chapter 17**

**X X X**

"...I know this plan is a long shot," Father Vittorio read aloud to Zeke and Julie, "but it's probably the best chance at defeating Count Eveer for good. And furthermore, I've left the coordinates to the castle on the back of this message."

"Hmm... so that's your friend's plan, huh?" Harry responded.

"I like it." Zeke said, "Surrender ourselves and make him think he's won, then bam! Just kidding! You lose!"

Harry took a moment to think about it.

"Well... I don't feel right about it, but if everything you've told me is true, then it might be the best way to get those people back."

"Indeed." Vittorio added, "Oh, but if you do wish to go, let me get you something. I'll be right back."

Vittorio left the office and, a few minutes later, returned with a gold crucifix.

"Take this with you." he said, handing it to Julie, "It should help to protect you, if you should find yourselves overwhelmed. Go with the blessing of the lord, my children."

"Thanks, Father." Julie said, slipping the crucifix into her jacket pocket.

As she did so, she suddenly felt a folded piece of paper and remembered the breakup letter that she'd given to Zeke. At the same time, Zeke thought about Trevor and how he'd found him missing and knew that he had to be one of the victims that had been kidnapped. As he vowed to bring his best friend back, he remembered the advice that Trevor had given him back at the toy store.

"Be careful out there." Harry added, with a salute, "And do not hesitate to contact me, if anything goes wrong."

Zeke and Julie saluted back in response and Zeke stuffed the music box into his back pocket as best as he could, while Julie punched in the coordinates to the castle and activated the door.

_'This can't wait any longer.'_ he and Julie both thought, as they headed through it.

**X X X**

"At latht! At latht!" Dr. Tongue cried in excitement, "I have done it!"

He chuckled madly, as he lorded over his new creation.

"With thethe new body parth and DNA thampleth, I now have even more thtrong and durable thervanth to therve me! And even better, I will thoon have created the ultimate thombie to lead them in the thity's invathion! Laugh at ME, will they? Call MY ecthperimenth inthane, will they? Well, I'll thow them!"

("With these new body parts and DNA samples, I now have even more strong and durable servants to serve me! And even better, I will soon have created the ultimate zombie to lead them in the city's invasion! Laugh at ME, will they? Call MY experiments insane, will they? Well, I'll show them!")

As Dr. Tongue continued laughing madly to himself, he failed to notice Mr. Y sneaking into the room and swiping a glowing glass sphere from Dr. Tongue's labcoat pocket. Covering it up in his arms, he hastily made his retreat.

**X X X**

"There, now..." Count Eveer uttered, as he wiped some blood off his fangs and then licked it off his finger, "that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Trevor remained motionless on the floor for a moment. Then he opened his eyes; which were now jet black, and stood up. He turned to face the Count and bowed, as Emily looked on in utter horror.

"I am at your service, master." he said.

"Very good." the Count replied, "Now let us prepare this other one, as a sacrifice, for the ritual."

Emily shivered with fear, as Count Eveer unlocked her shackles. Then she fainted dead away.

**X X X**

Zeke glanced at his watch, as he and Julie stood outside the castle doors. It was 11:45 PM, just fifteen minutes before Count Eveer's ritual would commence. But Zeke had a heavy weight to get off his chest, before he was ready to ultimately save the world. He took a deep breath and turned to face her.

"Julie," he said, "there's something important I've been wanting to tell you. Something I was going to tell you, back at that dungeon."

Before continuing, Zeke removed his 3D glasses and looked her right in the eye.

"Trevor told me about what your friends have been saying about me." he went on, "And... well, they're right. I've been... selfish and neglectful of you. I should've spent more time with you. And... I'm real sorry. If there's ever any way I can make it all up to you, after this whole thing is all over, don't hesitate to let me know."

Julie smiled as she took all that in, then reached into her jacket pocket.

"I have something I've been wanting to tell you too." she said, taking out the letter.

She took a brief moment to skim over the letter in disgust, then folded it in half and handed it to him.

"Don't read it." she said, "I want you to tear it up."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Zeke shrugged and began to tear the paper into pieces.

"That letter was going to be my way of breaking up with you." Julie told him, as he did so, "But ever since you saved my life, back at Burgerland, I'd been debating whether or not to go through with it. And I finally made up my mind, back at the dungeon, when you told me about how you fought that... super zombie or whatever it was... to save me and Mom. I've decided that I don't care what my friends say anymore. I'm staying with you, Zeke. I love you!"

She then held out her arms and the two of them embraced. Zeke smiled and took a moment to figure out how to respond, but then shook his head.

"You know what? I don't care how awkward it sounds to me. I'll just go ahead and say it. I love you too, Julie."

Julie smiled.

"See? I knew you could do it."

With that, they shared a brief, but passionate kiss.

"Oh..." Julie said, as they pulled away, "but there is one thing I'd like to ask, in return for ripping that letter."

"Regular afternoon foot massages?" Zeke offered.

Julie started to reply, but then thought about that and smiled.

"Okay, maybe two things."

"Get myself a haircut?"

She thought about that as well.

"What's the third thing?" Zeke asked, with a light sigh.

"Well, I'd just like- once this whole thing is all over- for us to go out somewhere. Somewhere other than Burgerland, that is. I mean... I don't want to sound demanding or anything, but... I just think it'd be nice if we could have some better food, maybe play some games or something, you know... the kind of date where we'd really have a good-"

Zeke cut her off with a kiss to the cheek.

"You talk too much, lady." he remarked, with a smile, "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about your birthday. I'll make sure it's your best birthday ever. But first..."

He took another glance at his watch, then put his 3D glasses back on.

"Let's make sure we'll be around to see it." he finished.

Julie smiled and nodded.

**X X X**

Emily gradually awoke, hoping her whole ordeal was just a bad dream. But it wasn't long, before she realized that it was in fact a living nightmare. She was now lying on an altar, with her wrists and ankles tied down.

"Ah, the sacrifice awakens!" the Count mused, "Let us begin the ritual."

He handed Trevor a dagger and took out a parchment. Emily continued trembling with fear, as she watched the Count stand in front of what looked like a portal. The Count unrolled the scroll, but just as he was about to start reading it...

"Hold up there, Count!" shouted a young male voice.

Trevor, the Count, and Emily all looked and were surprised to see Zeke and Julie approaching.

"You two again!" Count Eveer snapped.

Emily let out a sigh of relief.

"I knew you'd come!" she cried, "Save me, please!"

"Now, now!" Zeke responded, "We're not here to fight you, Count."

To the Count's amazement, Zeke and Julie set their water guns down on the floor.

"Quite the contrary," Julie added, "we've come to surrender."

"Really?" Eveer and Trevor said together.

"WHAT?!" Emily cried out.

"Yep." Zeke went on, as he and Julie slowly walked towards them, "You see, we've been doing some thinking and we've decided that we've been doing this for way too long."

"Yeah," Julie added, "there's just no point in keeping this up any longer. Eventually, all the monsters will overrun this whole town and even the Military base. So really, what's the point in trying to save a bunch of people who will just end up dying anyway?"

"I see." the Count replied, with a sinister smile, "Well then, since you've finally come to your senses, why don't you come over here and let me make you two members of my cabinet?"

"That would be an honor, master." Zeke responded.

As Zeke and Julie got closer to the Count; who gazed at their necks and licked his lips in excitement, Emily stared at the teens in disbelief.

"You can't be serious!" she cried, "How could you do this?! What's wrong with you?!"

Finally, they stopped and Zeke whispered to Julie, "Now?"

Julie whispered back, "Now!"

"Oh yes, and there is one other important thing we forgot to mention." Zeke told the Count.

"Yes? What is it?"

Wasting no time, Zeke whipped out the music box and shouted, "Sucker!", as he placed it on the floor and opened the lid. He and Julie then closed their eyes and covered their ears, as a burst of light emerged from the box and an ear-shattering musical tune began to play. Trevor and Count Eveer soon began to scream in pain.

"What?! NO!" Eveer cried, "That cursed box! It can't be!"

As the screams died down, Julie pushed the music box closed, with her foot, and slowly opened her eyes. Then she nudged Zeke's shoulder.

"We did it!" she told him, "It worked!"

Zeke looked. Indeed, the portal was now a pile of rubble, with flickering bolts of electricity going through it, though there was now no sign of the Count. And while Emily was still very much alive, though incredibly shaken, the same couldn't be said for Trevor; who was now lying deathly still nearby. Upon suddenly noticing this, Zeke and Julie ran up to him.

"Trevor!" Zeke cried.

He stopped and stared at his friend, then hung his head in shame. Brushing a tear from her eye, Julie placed a hand on his shoulder. Zeke then turned around, to seek comfort in Julie's arms. Little did either of them notice Trevor stirring, opening his eyes, and slowly sitting up.

"It wasn't your fault, Zeke." Julie told him, "There wasn't anything we could do."

"Yeah, man." Trevor added with a smile, "Don't beat yourself up. You did the right thing."

"Well, I appreciate the reassurance, Trevor," Zeke responded, as Julie and Emily stared at Trevor, "but I- WHAAAAT?! You're... you're alive again? But... how?"

"Because your friend was only recently deceased." a voice responded.

Everyone looked and saw Mr. Y approaching Emily's altar.

"Thus, the music box's power was able to nullify his undeath and restore him to life." he continued, as he began untying Emily's bonds.

"What about the Count?" Julie asked.

"Oh, you'll no longer need to worry about him. The box took care of him as well. What matters now, is getting your friends here back to safety."

Julie and Zeke nodded to each other, and Julie promptly activated Lil' Sparky's exit door.

"Hey, uh... sorry if we scared you back there, pretending to give ourselves up and all." Zeke told Emily, as she slowly picked herself up and walked towards the door.

"You gonna be okay?" Julie asked.

Emily hesitated, then replied, "Maybe. As long as I never see another monster again."

With that, she went through the door. Trevor went to the door after her.

"Hey, thanks a lot for saving me again." he told Zeke and Julie.

"No, Trevor," Zeke responded, putting his arm around Julie, "I'm the one who owes you a thank you."

Trevor watched Julie stroke Zeke's hand, then smiled and gave him a thumbs up, before walking through the door; which Julie then deactivated.

"Okay, there isn't much time!" Mr. Y said to the teens, "You've gotta stop the Count!"

"Wait, what?!" Zeke replied, "I thought... you said..."

"That he was taken care of," Julie cut him off, "...so as to calm Trevor and Emily down."

"Exactly. You may have foiled his plans, but even that artifact you recovered isn't powerful enough to destroy him. That's why you'll need this."

Mr. Y then took out the glass orb that he'd stolen from Dr. Tongue.

"This is the other artifact, that Dr. Tongue stole from the tomb." he said, "The one that was originally used to-"

Suddenly, he stumbled on the floor and the orb slipped from his hand. It fell onto the hard stone floor and shattered into pieces. Mr. Y stared back in horror and uttered a soft "Uh-oh..."

**X X X**

To be Continued


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**X X X**

"So... I'm guessing from your reaction, that that thing wasn't supposed to break like that?" Zeke asked Mr. Y.

Suddenly, a puff of smoke caught the group's attention. Once it had settled, Count Eveer was standing in its wake.

"Well, what have we here?" he mused, at the site of the smashed artifact, "It would seem that, while you two have prevented me from summoning my subjects into this world, I am now free of that wretched scientist's control! Thus, I am now free to create a new army of subjects to help me rule this world! Perhaps you two are still interested in becoming my Generals?"

Upon hearing him say 'you two', Zeke and Julie suddenly glanced around and noticed that Mr. Y had disappeared on them again.

"No?" the Count went on, "Good. I've always liked it better that way!"

With that, Eveer bore his fangs and lunged at Julie; who barely managed to try and resist as the vampire started towards her neck. But he suddenly stopped, when two streams of holy water hit him in the face. He flinched in pain and glared at Zeke; who had retrieved the two water guns.

"Why you...!"

But before the Count could react further, Julie suddenly remembered the crucifix that Father Vittorio gave her. She whipped it ouf and held it in front of her, watching in amazement as the cross began to glow. Count Eveer roared in extreme pain and then jumped backwards, turning himself into a bat and flying away. Zeke walked up to Julie; who looked up and him and gave a light smile of relief, as she caught her breath.

"Any idea where our friend ran off to?" Zeke asked, handing Julie's gun to her.

"Beats me." she replied, "It's probably not important now though. We gotta find the rest of those people, fast!"

"Right. Let's go!"

**X X X**

Mr. Y opened each desk drawer, searching frantically, until he finally found a pair of keys. He put them in his pocket and turned towards the door, but was startled to see Dr. Tongue standing in the doorway, with a laser gun pointed at him.

"Not tho fatht!" he shouted, "Thought you could thabotage my planth behind my back, eh? Thought I wouldn't thuthpect a thing, did you? I should've known you were jutht like all the retht of them!" (Thought you could sabotage my plans behind my back, eh? Thought I wouldn't suspect a thing, did you? I should've known you were just like all the rest of them!)

Mr. Y slowly put his hands up.

"You got me, 'Doctor.'" he responded, "You've truly gone insane and I never did want to help you. But I knew you'd kill me if I didn't."

"Tho you helped thothe two kidth to thpoil my planth, figuring I'd be none the wither, ith that right?" (So, you helped those two kids to spoil my plans, figuring I'd be none the wiser, is that right?)

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Well, that'th all I need to hear."

**X X X**

Zeke and Julie looked around the halls, keeping an eye on Lil' Sparky's radar.

"I still don't see anyone around here," Julie told Zeke, "but it looks like we're getting closer to-..."

Julie was suddenly cut off, by a loud noise nearby.

"Whoa..." uttered Zeke, "That... sounded like... a raygun?"

Then they faintly heard a familar voice inside a room not far from where they were standing.

"I'll deal with your body later. For now, I mutht prepare to entertain my... guethth." (I'll deal with your body later. For now, I must prepare to entertain my... guests.)

There was a sound of gulping, followed by a faint poofing sound. Then, silence. Zeke and Julie looked at each other and then raced into the room. There, they found Mr. Y laying still on the floor. Lifting his 3D glasses, Zeke slowly approached him and removed his scarf and sunglasses.

"Hey... you're that other scientist!" he said, "That Dr. Weith- err... Weisman... guy that Dr. Tongue brought in to that dungeon, to give that speech for him!"

Dr. Weisman took a breath.

"Yes." he said, "It's true. All this time, I've been... well, my backstory and motivations aren't important. You've got to stop Dr. Tongue now!"

He reached into his pocket and grabbed the two keys; which he handed to Zeke.

"Here. One of these keys unlocks the dungeons. The other one... unlocks a cabinet in Dr. Tongue's lab. It'll have a... secret weapon... that you might need."

With that, Mr. Y's head fell back to the ground and he lay still.

"Most tragic indeed." a nearby voice said.

"Yeah, poor guy." Zeke replied, "Uhh... who said that?"

Zeke and Julie turned around, to face yet another puff of smoke.

"Surprise!" Count Eveer shouted, before leaping towards them with his fangs bared.

But he soon jumped back, with a scream of agony, and shielded himself with his arms, as Julie whipped out her crucifix and held it in front of her. Grunting in frustration, he turned into a bat and flew away.

"Come on!" Julie said, motioning for Zeke to follow.

Zeke; who had paused to read a text message on his phone, that he'd just recieved, suddenly looked up and noticed Julie had already left the room.

"Hey, wait up!" he called after her.

As he pursued Julie, Zeke suddenly heard Harry's voice on his radio.

"Houston calling Dallas. Give me a SitRep, over."

Sighing, Zeke grabbed the radio, when the Count suddenly appeared right in front of him. Startled, he fell backwards and dropped the radio onto the floor.

"Dallas? Do you copy?"

"Here, young man," the Count said, "let me get that for you."

But instead of picking it up, the Count stomped on the radio, smashing it.

"Whoops! Clumsy me!"

Zeke sighed.

"Well, that's inconvenient." he said.

**X X X**

Julie looked up from Lil' Sparky's screen, as she approached what appeared to be a fancy dining hall.

"Okay, it looks like there's two more of them in here." she muttered to Zeke.

But as she glanced in what she thought was Zeke's direction, she suddenly realized that she was alone.

"Zeke? ...Zeke, where are you?!"

No response. Julie looked back at the radar screen and sighed.

_'Please let him be safe.'_ she thought, as she walked into the dining hall.

As she walked in, Julie found a man and woman waiting for her. They looked just like the vacationing tourists that she and Zeke had previously rescued from the grocery store.

"Ah, good." the man said, "You're here at last."

"Yes." added the woman, "You're just in time."

"You two were taken from the base too, huh? Well, don't worry, I'll have you back there in-... wait... I'm in time for what?"

The man took off his sunglasses, looked Julie straight in the eye, and replied, "Why, dinner of course!"

Suddenly, hair began to rapidly grow on the couple's flesh and their clothes began to tear apart.

"You..." Julie stammered, "You're not..."

She then noticed that the two blips on Lil' Sparky's radar screen had vanished as the werewolves' transformations completed. As the two werewolves began to hungrily approach Julie, she quickly turned off Lil' Sparky and pocketed it, before diving behind the table. Knowing that holy water would do no good against werewolves, she set her gun down.

_'Wait a sec...'_ she thought, _'this is a dining room, so that means...'_

Glancing up onto the table, Julie noticed that it was indeed set up with plates and silverware.

"Yes!" she cried, quickly grabbing a fork and a knife.

Julie then ducked down again, as one of the werewolves pounced over the table at her. As the werewolf landed near her, Julie wasted no time plunging the two utensils into its chest. The monster cried out in agony and fell to the floor, dissipating into nothingness. Julie felt a moment's relief, until a deep growling behind her reminded her that there was one more werewolf to deal with. Thinking quickly, she threw a nearby chair in front of the werewolf and scampered away. This only bought Julie a few seconds, but that was all she needed to arm herself with another set of utensils and toss them at the werewolf. After watching the second werewolf's body vanish away, Julie sighed with relief and went to retrieve her water gun. She then turned to leave the room, only to find Dr. Tongue standing right in front of her, pointing his raygun at her.

"Very imprethive, my dear!" he remarked, snatching her gun away, "But I'm afraid your fun'th over now. Now, you're coming with me!"

_'Oh no... the dream!' _Julie thought, as she slowly put her hands in the air, _'It's really happening!'_

**X X X**

To be Continued


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**X X X**

Zeke took another look around, to make sure the coast was clear, before checking his phone for a text reply from Julie.

"Come on... where can she be?"

He didn't have long to dwell on that thought, however, as the Count appeared once again. Zeke aimed his gun at him and pulled the trigger, but only a little bit of holy water came out, followed by a small burst of air.

"Aw, come on!" Zeke cried, "Now?!"

"Like they say, all good things must come to an end."

Zeke shrugged.

"Okay," he said, "so maybe I can't outfight you. But I CAN outrun you. Question is though: can you outrun that thing behind you?"

Eveer turned around.

"What thing? I don't see any-... Hey!"

Zeke hightailed it as fast as his feet would carry him. He eventually found himself outside, checking his phone again for a response from Julie. But once again, he had little time to express his disappointment, before he suddenly felt an icy cold hand clutch his throat. Zeke dropped both his phone and his water gun, as he instinctively struggled to free himself from the vampire's grasp.

"Gotcha!" Count Eveer remarked, licking his lips at the sight of Zeke's neck, "I have waited a long time for this."

"Ugh... is that right?" Zeke replied, "Well... I'd hate to break it to ya... but I think... you may have waited... a bit too long."

"What do you mean? ...Oh no, don't tell me."

The Count turned his head, just in time to see the sun coming up. He sighed in exasperation.

"Well, drat."

And with that, the Count disintigrated into a pile of dust. Zeke took a moment to catch his breath, before retrieving his gun and phone off the ground.

"Glad that's over with." he muttered to himself, looking at his watch, "Man, have I really been running from him for THAT long?! Aw, whatever. I better find Julie. I hope she's okay."

**X X X**

"And once you find the location of this fortress, you'll have one chance to find those kids and any other survivors, and bring them back alive." the General told Harry, "Remember, Lieutenant, those kids are still your responsibility."

"I understand, Sir. I'll get right on it immediately."

Harry hung up the phone, just as Sergeant Weber came into the room.

"Sir!" he said, "We've pinpointed the location of Dr. Tongue's hideout!"

"Good. Then there's no time to lose! Round up your squad and meet me at the hangar in five."

The Sergeant saluted and hastily exited.

**X X X**

Zeke cautiously walked down the castle halls, keeping a wary eye out for Julie.

"Julie?" he called out, "Are you alright? Come on, please answer me!"

As he neared the dungeon, he finally heard a female voice call out, "Hello?"

Zeke ran up to the door and peered through the bars. But instead of Julie, he saw the four cheerleaders that were missing from the base, shackled to the wall.

"Look, girls!" Tina cried out, "It's like Zeke and Julie! They've totally come to save us, or some junk!"

Feeling slightly disappointed, Zeke fished around in his pocket for the dungeon key.

"Yeah, umm... about that..." he replied, pulling out the key and unlocking the door.

The girls were then surprised to see Zeke open the door and walk in by himself.

"Where's Julie?" Jenny asked.

"That's kinda what I've been trying to figure out myself, since we got separated. But if it's any consolation, at least the vampire's been taken care of."

The girls found themselves simultaneously relieved and worried as Zeke unlocked their shackles.

"Well, I hope we find her soon." Lisa said, "This place gives me the creeps."

"Yeah, so do I." Zeke responded, "I've almost lost her several times already. If anything's happened to her..."

"Gosh, like... you really care that much for her or some junk?" Tina queried.

"I know I haven't proved it very well lately... but yeah, I... I love her. With all my heart. Now let's go find her!"

As the five of them walked out of the dungeon, Debby whispered to Lisa, "Maybe we've been wrong about him after all."

The group hadn't gone far though, when a door at the end of the hallway was knocked open. In the doorway, stood a balding man in a hockey mask, holding a chainsaw. The cheerleaders screamed in terror, as he raised the chainsaw in the air and roared.

"Oh no... not another one of those guys!" Zeke blustered, "Stand back, girls!"

Zeke raised his gun as the burly man came closer, but again nothing came out when he pulled the trigger.

"Oh... right. Crap. I guess we should run then."

The group turned and started to run, but then noticed another chainsaw-wielding monster approaching from the other direction.

"Okay, umm... this way then!"

Zeke and the girls turned to the side, but yet another monster in a hockey mask approached them.

"Let me guess." Zeke blandly said, "There's a fourth one coming up behind us, isn't there?"

"Umm, yeah. Like, there totally is." Tina responded.

Soon, the four chainsaw-wielding men surrounded the group. But to their surprise, the monsters all stopped and held their chainsaws still. Then one of them grunted and motioned for the group to follow him.

"Okay... I wasn't expecting that." Zeke told the girls, "Doesn't look like we've got a choice though."

With that, the four burly monsters escorted the reluctant teenagers away.

**X X X**

Julie grimaced at the zombie; who had once tried to win her heart in life- and did a poor job of doing so-, as she struggled in vain to free herself from the ropes tied around her wrists and ankles.

"I don't care how much he 'loved' me before!" she snapped at Dr. Tongue, "I'll NEVER marry him, dead or alive!"

"Very well, my dear." Dr. Tongue replied, "If you won't do thith the eathy way, then we'll..."

Dr. Tongue was cut off, as the door to his lab was kicked open. Julie then watched as a masked burly man with a chainsaw entered the room and roared, as he motioned for the group behind him to follow. It didn't take long for Julie to recognize the prisoners being escorted into the lab. Most notably...

"Zeke!"

"Julie!" Zeke cried.

He started to run towards her, but stopped when one of the monsters held his chainsaw in front of him and shook his head at him.

"Let her go, you mad psycho!" Zeke shouted at Dr. Tongue.

Dr. Tongue chuckled.

"Thorry... Theke, ith it? But I'm afraid I can't do that. It would make my newetht creathion here motht unhappy." (Sorry... Zeke, is it? But I'm afraid I can't do that. It would make my newest creation here most unhappy.)

To Zeke's surprise,- and the cheerleaders' surprise as well- a familiar-looking zombie turned to face them.

"Morris?!" Zeke blustered.

"Like, oh my God!" cried Tina, "It's that creep, Morris Blakely!"

"Eww!" the other girls cried.

Upon recognizing Zeke, Morris pointed at him and grunted, before making a challenging gesture at him.

"Well, well..." Dr. Tongue mused, "it would theem that thith blatht from your patht would like to thettle a thcore with you. Perhapth we can make a deal then." (it would seem that this blast from your past would like to settle a score with you. Perhaps we can make a deal then.)

Dr. Tongue flipped a switch on the wall, and then the lab began to transform. There was now a dance floor in the center of the room, a scoreboard on the wall, and a DJ station in the corner- with a zombie acting as a DJ.

_'No!' _Julie thought, _'This can't be happening!'_

Zeke took off his 3D glasses and looked around in amazement.

_'Wait...' _he thought, _'this must be that dream Julie was talking about!'_

"Tho, here'th the deal, Theke." Dr. Tongue continued, "You and Morrith here will take part in a little danthe competithion, and the winner getth the girl. Any quethtionth?" (So, here's the deal, Zeke. You and Morris here will take part in a little dance competition, and the winner gets the girl. Any questions?)

"This is stupid!" Zeke snapped, "A dance contest?! Come on!"

Dr. Tongue then whipped out his raygun and pointed it at Julie's head.

"Humor me, or thee dieth." (Humor me, or she dies.)

With that, Zeke put his 3D glasses on, pointed at Morris and said, "Bring it on, punk!"

Morris pointed back at Zeke and grunted in response.

"That'th more like it." Dr. Tongue said, putting his gun away, "Platheth, everyone!" (That's more like it. Places, everyone!)

The lead chainsaw-wielding monster directed Zeke, Morris, the cheerleaders, and his three comrades to their positions. Zeke stood on one side of the dance floor, with the cheerleaders at his back, and Morris stood at the other side, with the masked men at his back. Then one of the masked monsters put down his chainsaw and went to retrieve a box; which he held out to the cheerleaders and opened. Inside the box was four pairs of pom poms. The cheerleaders looked at each other and shrugged, then they each took a pair. The monster then threw the box aside and returned to his position.

"Alright, playerth, let'th begin! Theke, you'll thtart." (Alright, players, let's begin! Zeke, you'll start.)

The zombie DJ stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles, causing the fingers on one hand to fall off. Dr. Tongue sighed and covered his face with his hand, as the zombie sheepishly picked the fingers up and put them back on. Then he put in a CD and set the first song to play.

"I won't let you down, Julie!" Zeke told her, as he stepped into position.

Knowing that this was a spot on recreation of her nightmare so far, Julie's heart sank. She just watched as Zeke danced to the music and the cheerleaders cheered him on. The masked chainsaw-wielding men meanwhile danced in support of Morris, when his turn came.

The soldiers saluted as Harry approached them.

"At ease, men." he said, "Now listen up. Recently, this city has been terrorized by things that go bump in the night. Including zombies, werewolves, and even living toys. And yet it has stood strong, thanks to the help of two individuals; who are now being held captive by the madman responsible for unleashing those monstrosities upon the city. Those two have been a big help to all of us, so now is the time for us to return the favor. Any of you who don't wish to come on this mission, walk away now."

One short and skinny soldier started to back away, until he saw two others glaring at him. He then snapped back into position and nervously grinned.

"Okay, then. Let's get those kids back home."

Zeke scoffed, noting Morris' score was still twenty points behind Zeke's, as the zombie stepped back.

"You're pretty spry for a dead guy," he said, moving back to position, "but you're still no match for me!"

"Let's go, Zeke!" the cheerleaders cheered, "You're the one who doesn't reek! Yay, Zeke!"

"Hmmph... we'll jutht thee about that!" Dr. Tongue responded, nodding to the DJ.

Zeke braced himself, as the zombie obediently switched CDs again. This time, however, Zeke suddenly found himself ill-prepared for the song that played.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." he muttered.

Zeke did his best to move along with the music, but failed to concentrate, due to how much he hated the song that was playing. As a result, he was awarded no points for that round. He sighed dejectedly, and moved aside for Morris to get in position.

As Julie watched this go on, she couldn't help thinking about how the competition would conclude:

_'And that concludth the final round! I'm tho thorry Theke, but it lookth like you loothe! Goodbye!' (And that concludes the final round! I'm so sorry, Zeke, but it looks like you lose! Goodbye!)_

_Dr. Tongue whipped out a remote and pressed a button; which opened the floor underneath Zeke._

_'Whoaaaaaaaaa!' Zeke cried out, as he fell._

_'Zeke!' Julie cried, 'NOOOOOO!'_

Julie shook her head.

_'NO!'_ she thought, _'It can't end like this! Zeke saved me from his nightmare. There's gotta be a way I can save him from mine. If I could just get free, and get my gun back...'_

She looked around frantically, for a way to free herself from the ropes. Finally, she noticed what looked like a scalpel, sticking out of one of Dr. Tongue's pockets. Julie glanced at her feet and nodded, then slipped one shoe off and reached her legs out towards Dr. Tongue's coat. Dr. Tongue, noticing this out of the corner of his eye, turned to face her.

"Err... just stretching my legs!" she said, quickly moving her legs to the side, "And uh... my foot itches!"

She hastily began scratching her bare foot with her shoed one. Dr. Tongue gave her a strange look for a moment, then shrugged and continued watching the dance off. Julie reached for the scalpel a second time, this time managing to grasp it between her toes and pull it out. Dr. Tongue failed to notice this time, as she put the scalpel down on the floor and moved until she could reach it with her hands.

"Man, you must have the absolute worst taste in music ever!" Zeke remarked, as he watched Morris dance.

Dr. Tongue chuckled.

"Now, now! Let'th not have any thore lootherth, thall we?" (Now, now! Let's not have any sore losers, shall we?)

He once again failed to notice as Julie, now free from her restraints, retrieved her water gun and knocked him unconscious with a quick- but hard- blow to the back of the head. Then, after putting her shoe back on, Julie took Dr. Tongue's remote out of his other pocket and threw it onto the floor; where a quick stomp of her foot turned it into a broken piece of junk.

"They don't make 'em like they used to." she mused.

Zeke sighed with disbelief, as Morris's score now surpassed his by about thirty points.

_'Come on, Zeke!'_ he thought, moving into position as the song dragged on, _'You promised Julie you wouldn't let her down!'_

"Come on, girls! What should we say?" Debby asked the other cheerleaders.

"Like, I got nothing." Tina replied.

"Me neither." said Lisa.

"Wait, girls!" Jenny said, pointing at the DJ station, "Look!"

The cheerleaders all looked, along with Zeke; who overheard the commotion. To their amazement, they saw the DJ being blasted with holy water from Julie's gun. As the undead DJ exploded, Julie entered the DJ station and removed the CD that was playing.

"I think we've heard enough of this crap!" she said.

Julie flung the CD into the wall, shattering it into several pieces, and looked through the other CDs. After finding a karaoke hits album, she turned it around and looked at the tracks.

"Ah, perfect!"

She popped in the CD and selected the track, then picked up a nearby microphone and switched it on. Morris and the chainsaw-wielding monsters stared in confusion, wondering where Julie was going with this.

"This on? Okay. Here's a special dedication to one of our contestants."

After pressing the play button, Julie began to sing.

"He went away, and you hung around,

and bothered me every night.

And when I wouldn't go out with you,

you said things that weren't very nice."

As she was saying this, Zeke quickly recognized the tune and smiled at Julie. He then pushed Morris back and said, "Scoot over, sonny boy! Time for a pro to show you how it's really done!"

"I think we all know what to do too." Jenny told the other cheerleaders; who all nodded.

"My boyfriend's back and you're gonna be in trouble."

"Hey-la, day-la, my boyfriend's back!" the cheerleaders sung along, continuing to dance in support of Zeke.

This time it was Morris who failed to concentrate, as the girls taunted him with the song's lyrics. Zeke meanwhile started racking up points with his dance moves once again, now that his motivation was restored. But as the song was coming to a close, Julie suddenly stopped singing. Out of the corner of her eye, she'd noticed Morris reaching into his chest and pulling out what looked like a pulsating unstable organ. He then pointed in Zeke's direction with his other hand, and prepared to throw.

"Zeke!" Julie shouted, "Look out!"

Zeke was so lost in the music, that he didn't catch her warning, before the explosive organ came his way. However, Julie needn't have worried for his safety. For Zeke had finished his number with a kick move that just happened to strike the projectile, unwittingly sending it flying right back to the thrower.

"What the...?" Zeke muttered, as he watched the organ smack Morris in the face.

Morris stumbled backwards, falling right onto the chainsaws of two of his startled masked comrades. The cheerleaders then screamed and instinctively ran for cover, just before the organ exploded. Soon, body parts began flying everywhere, having been severed either by the explosion or running chainsaw blades; which fortunately became jammed by the organs that got caught in them. When it was finally over, Zeke took a quick look around.

"I uhh... meant to do that! Really! Heh... you girls alright?"

As the shaken cheerleaders brushed themselves off and approached him, Tina opened her mouth to speak, but then gasped in fear.

"Zeke!" she cried, pointing behind him, "Like, look out!"

Zeke spun around, as the one surviving masked monster approached him, yanking on the chainsaw cord until it started to rev up again. As the monster raised his weapon above his head and roared, Zeke suddenly heard Julie whistle behind him.

"Think fast, Zeke!" she called, tossing her crucifix towards him.

Zeke deftly caught the religious symbol and pressed it into the monster's chest. Now the monster roared in pain, rather than aggressiveness, before he finally exploded. As Zeke stood there, catching his breath, he turned to face an approaching Julie. Lifting his 3D glasses to his forehead, Zeke gladly accepted her embrace.

"I knew you could do it!" he whispered in her ear.

As they eventually pulled away, Julie turned to face the cheerleaders.

"Well, girls," she said, "let's hear it for the boy!"

As the five girls began to applaud, Zeke smiled and bowed in response.

"You were like, totally amazing on the dance floor, or some junk!" Tina told him.

The other girls nodded in agreement.

"Thanks, but... I couldn't have done it without Julie's help. Speaking of which, I think it's time to get these girls home now."

"Agreed." Julie replied, taking out Lil' Sparky.

She promptly set the coordinates and activated the door.

"Ladies first." Zeke said, gesturing towards the door.

The cheerleaders walked through the door, not hesitating to take advantage of his courtesy. Zeke and Julie watched until the four of them made it through. But just as they were about to step through the door themselves, they were suddenly startled by a laser blast that struck Lil' Sparky. Julie dropped the device in horror, as the door vanished away. She and Zeke stared at the short-circuiting device's remains, until they heard a voice on the other side of the room.

"Going thomewhere?"

The teens turned to face a very angry-looking Dr. Tongue; who was pointing his raygun at them and rubbing his head with his other hand.

**X X X**

To be Continued.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**X X X**

"Dr. Weithman gave you that devithe, didn't he?" Dr. Tongue blistered, "Well, you two may have thabotaged my planth for now, but I thall build new creationth that will take over the world, onthe I've dethtroyed you!"

(Dr. Weisman gave you that device, didn't he? Well, you two may have sabotaged my plans for now, but I shall build new creations that will take over the world, once I've destroyed you!)

Zeke and Julie closed their eyes, as Dr. Tongue squeezed the trigger. But when nothing happened after a brief moment, they slowly began to open them again. To their relief, Dr. Tongue was now shaking his gun in anger and pulling the trigger like crazy, but no laser blasts came from the barrel. In a fit of rage, he threw the gun down on the floor; where it broke apart. Zeke smirked at him.

"Face it, Dr. Tongue," he said, "you've lost. Your monsters are all dead... again..., your weapons are gone, and I'm pretty sure the Military's out for your blood now. So you might as well just surrender."

Dr. Tongue took a moment to think about that. Then he suddenly raised his hands in the air.

"Yeth, you're right. I thurrender."

Zeke and Julie looked at each other in surprise.

"Huh... well, that was surprisingly easy." Julie said.

"Yeah, that never works in the movies. Hmm... so... now that Lil' Sparky's out of commission, how should we bring him in?"

"Wait, didn't you bring that radio?"

"Well, I did... but the Count smashed it."

"...So, we're stuck without Lil' Sparky or that radio now."

"Well, on the bright side, we don't have to worry about that Count anymore. See, I tricked him into-..."

"Err... thorry to interrupt your little converthathion," Dr. Tongue interrupted, reaching into his coat, "but I jutht remembered that I really am thtill armed after all!"

(Err... sorry to interrupt your little conversation, but I just remembered that I really am still armed after all!)

He took out a flask and started drinking from it. Soon afterwards, he began to transform. Zeke and Julie stared in shock.

"I'm not the only one seeing this, am I?" Zeke asked Julie.

"'fraid not." she replied.

Standing before them now, was the biggest and most vicious-looking spider they'd ever seen.

"Not cool." Zeke muttered, just before he and Julie jumped away from the spider, narrowly avoiding his jaws.

"Any bright ideas?" Julie asked.

"Uhh... working on it!"

Lacking any better ideas, Zeke began frantically searching his pockets for anything that might help.

"Wallet, no. Phone, no. Keys, no. Wait..."

Zeke suddenly remembered one of the keys that Mr. Y had given him. After pulling it out and quickly scanning around the room, he spotted the locker and raced towards it. However, Zeke didn't get very far, before he found himself stuck in a sticky web on the floor.

"Crap! Can't move! ...Julie, here!"

As Dr. Tongue advanced on him, Zeke tossed the key to Julie and pointed at the locker. Julie deftly caught the key, nodded in response, and made her way to it. Zeke braced himself for the spider's attack, when Dr. Tongue suddenly shot some more web fluid; which stopped Julie in her tracks, just a few short feet away from the locker.

"Not so fast, little girl!" Dr. Tongue remarked, "You know better than to mess with Daddy's things! I... hey! What do you know, my speech impediment is finally gone! How about that!"

Zeke paused, then he suddenly had an idea.

"Heh... yeah." he replied, "That must've been a major hassle for quite a while, huh?"

"Oh, you would not believe what that blasted tongue put me through. Ever since that little accident in the lab, everyone was always..."

As Dr. Tongue babbled on, Zeke briefly lifted his glasses and looked towards Julie. Then he motioned with his hand and mouthed the words, "Go! Hurry!" Julie looked down at her webbed-up shoes and did her best to keep moving through the web. Then she finally stopped and sighed.

"Alright, this is the LAST time I'm doing this!" she whispered to herself.

Julie reluctantly untied her shoes, slipped her feet out of them, and stood on top of them. Then she jumped away from the webbed area of the floor and approached the locker, doing her best to ignore how unbelievably cold the floor was. After quickly unlocking the locker door and opening it, she discovered two corked flasks; each containing a red liquid. Julie gingerly picked one up and looked at it.

"I must be nuts." she told herself, as she pulled out the cork.

"...but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get them to take me seriously anymore. I tell you, they were all just... wait a minute..."

Out of the corner of one of his many eyes, Dr. tongue suddenly noticed Julie's empty shoes on the floor. With difficulty, he turned around to see her drinking from the flask.

"No!" he cried, "Not the red potion!"

Julie finally swallowed the last of the potion and took a brief moment to savor the taste.

"That actually tasted... AGGH!"

She suddenly fell to the ground and started to transform. Zeke removed his 3D glasses and stared back in shock and awe, as Julie soon became a big burly purple creature that was still wearing her red hat.

"Well..." Zeke mused, "I sure wasn't expecting that."

Wasting little time, Julie leaped on the giant spider and began furiously punching him. Zeke, meanwhile, resumed his struggle against the sticky web, gradually managing to repeatedly put one foot in front of the other until he was finally out of the web. He then made his way to Julie, stopping briefly to pull her shoes out of the web, and reaching her just as Dr. Tongue's spider body finally gave in and fell in a heap on the floor. Julie jumped backwards onto the floor, as he turned back into his old long-tongued human self again.

"Think he's still alive?" Zeke asked.

Julie nudged the scientist and waited a moment. When he didn't show any signs of life, she shook her head and replied with a "Nope." Zeke looked at Julie, wondering what to say, until she suddenly started to change back into her old self as well. Julie looked herself over, relieved that she still had her clothes on, save for her shoes; which were in Zeke's hand.

"Well," he said, handing them to her, "I guess you'll be wanting these back after all."

Julie smiled, as she gratefully took her shoes back, dusted off the soles of her feet, and put her shoes back on.

"As handy as that monster form was," she replied, "I think I like my current shoe size better."

Zeke nodded. Then, as he was starting to put his 3D glasses on again, he stopped and stared at Julie.

"Are... you okay?" he asked, "You look a little... dizzy."

Indeed, Julie suddenly found herself feeling light-headed. But just as she opened her mouth to speak, she suddenly pointed at Dr. Tongue; who was holding yet another vial and starting to weakly pour its contents into his mouth. Zeke turned to look, and quickly ran to stop him. But he was too late. The liquid made its way down his throat, causing his body to violently shake and then transform once again. The next thing they knew, Zeke and Julie were staring at a giant floating head.

"Let's see you meddling kids defeat me NOW!" Dr. Tongue's voice boomed.

They quickly jumped out of the way, as the giant head's tongue shot right out of his mouth towards them. Zeke picked himself up off the floor and quickly helped Julie up.

"Come on!" he urged her, as he put his 3D glasses on.

The two of them ran towards the open locker, Dr. Tongue in hot pursuit. Julie was lagging behind, however, as the dizziness that she'd felt earlier was getting stronger. She barely managed to avoid another tongue coming her way, before suddenly finding herself unable to stay balanced. As Zeke grabbed the second potion and turned around, he was horrified to see Julie fall backwards in a faint.

"Julie!"

"Well, well," Dr. Tongue mused, "it looks as though your poor girlfriend here has had a hard day, and is all tuckered out. Perhaps I can help her to rest... in peace!"

Zeke quickly yanked the cork out of the flask and guzzled its contents, as Dr. Tongue flew upwards- clearly intending to crush Julie on the way back down. Sure enough, Zeke transformed into the same kind of purple creature that Julie had transformed into earlier. He then leaped towards Julie, landing in front of her just as Dr. Tongue started to come down on her. But the giant head was unable to reach its target, as Zeke uppercutted him with all his might. As Dr. Tongue involuntarily flew up to the ceiling, Zeke quickly picked up Julie and carried her to the DJ station; where he set her down. Dr. Tongue struck the ceiling so hard, that it began to collapse. Fortunately, the corner of the ceiling that was above Zeke and Julie just happened to stay intact. Sighing with relief, Zeke jumped out as Dr. Tongue furiously came back down and launched his tongue at him. But Zeke simply backhanded the projectile away, before leaping up to Dr. Tongue and punching him right into the wall. Zeke was then surprised to see wires and metal exposed from the damage that the head had sustained.

_'A robot head?' _he thought, _'He turned himself into a giant robot head?!'_

Zeke nevertheless shook off that thought and said, in a deep monstrous voice, "That was for Julie!"

He then jumped onto Dr. Tongue, grabbing ahold of his ear with one hand.

"This is for Mr. Brown!" he added, before striking him again.

"This is for Dr. Weisman!"

Again, Zeke punched him hard.

"And this is for everybody I missed!"

Zeke continued punching the metallic head, until he suddenly hurt his hand in the process.

"Oww! Hey, what the...? Oh..."

When Zeke looked at his hand, he suddenly realized that the transformation had worn off. Dr. Tongue narrowed his eyes at Zeke and suddenly accellerated forward. Noticing the opposite wall rapidly approaching, Zeke leapt to the side and rubbed his hand as he wondered what to do now. It didn't help, however, that he was starting to get the same dizzy feeling that Julie had felt.

"Think, Zeke, think!" he muttered, as Dr. Tongue turned to face him.

He didn't have to think long, however, as the sound of helicopter rotors came. Zeke and Dr. Tongue both looked up through the giant hole, where a ceiling used to be. Sure enough, they were greeted with the sight of a Chinook chopper full of soldiers- including Julie's uncle.

"What the hell is that thing?!" one soldier shouted.

"Who cares? Just kill it!" the Sergeant retorted.

Obediently, the soldiers opened fire on Dr. Tongue. However, the bullets failed to penetrate.

"No good, cease fire! Jenkins, the bazooka!"

One of the soldiers obediently retrieved a bazooka, when Dr. Tongue suddenly opened his massive mouth and stuck out another tongue that launched towards the chopper.

"Evasive action, now!" Harry shouted to the pilot; who quickly swerved the chopper to avoid the giant tongue.

In doing so however, he inadvertedly caused Jenkins to lose his grip on the bazooka; which fell right onto Dr. Tongue and momentarily incapacitated him. As Zeke did his best to fight off the dizzyness, he suddenly heard Harry's voice again.

"Zeke! Use that bazooka! Kill that thing, whatever it is!"

Zeke lifted his glasses to get a good look and was happy to see another bazooka waiting for him to use. He ran up to it and picked it up, but found himself struggling to reach a safe distance to use it.

"No!" he told himself, "Can't give in! Gotta... fight it... for Julie!"

With that, he got into position and held the weapon at the ready, just as Dr. Tongue began to recover and prepared to attack the chopper once again.

"Hey!" Zeke shouted to Dr. Tongue, "Don't you know it's rude to turn your back on people?!"

Dr. Tongue looked back down, just as Zeke fired. He barely had time to utter, "Mother!" before the rocket made contact with his face and the resulting explosion blew him into a million pieces. Zeke set the bazooka down and smiled.

"It's over." he muttered, "It's finally..."

Before he could finish that thought, Zeke suddenly found himself unable to resist the light-headedness any longer and finally fainted onto the floor. He could barely make out the sounds of the helicopter descending outside and Harry shouting orders to the soldiers, before he finally blacked out.

**X X X**

"Look! Look, he's waking up!" a female voice said.

"Welcome back, Zeke." a male voice added.

Zeke gradually awoke, slowly recognizing the voices of the figures standing by his bedside.

"Mom? Dad?"

Zeke took a look around and quickly realized he was back at the base, in an infirmary bed. Now though, his parents were with him, having returned from their vacation.

"The soldiers told us everything." his mother said, "We're very proud of you, Zeke."

"Yeah." his father added, "I've never seen the kitchen so spotless!"

"Frank..."

"What? Oh yeah... and saving the city from those monsters! Great job there too, Son."

Zeke couldn't help blushing a little.

"Thanks. Umm... where's Julie?"

"She's right here." a nearby voice said.

Immediately afterwards, a curtain by the bed pulled open. There, in the neighboring bed, lay Julie with her mother and uncle by her side.

"Hey, Zeke." Julie said, waving.

Zeke smiled at her.

"Thank goodness you're okay." he replied, "What... happened to us back there?"

"You mean why did you two pass out?" Harry responded, "Well, that potion you used was an effective weapon, but I think you may have overlooked one little detail."

He picked up a nearby empty vial that previously contained a red potion, and turned it so that Zeke could see its warning label.

'May cause dizzyness, drowsiness, and loss of conciousness', it read.

"Not to mention," Mary added, "you did stay up all night. But I assume that's the reason I'm told we no longer have any vampires to worry about?"

Zeke nodded.

"I managed to avoid him until just before the sun came up. Not my method of choice at the time, but it was the only option I could see."

"Well, at any rate," Harry responded, "you've definitely earned some rest."

Zeke's mother cleared her throat and said, "Uh, pardon me, but aren't we forgetting something?"

"Oh yeah... before we go, you two should know that the boys managed to recover a little something in the rubble that I believe is yours."

He then nodded to Mary; who reached into her purse, took out Julie's water gun, and handed it to her. Zeke's mother then did the same, giving his water gun to him as well.

"Now then, you two get some rest." Harry continued with a salute, "That's an order."

Zeke and Julie saluted back with a "Yes, Sir!"

Just before departing, Zeke's parents each gave him a hug, while Harry and Mary did the same with Julie.

"You take care of that boy." Mary whispered to Julie, "He's a real keeper."

"I will, Mom."

After their families left the room, Zeke turned to face Julie.

"Well," he said, "looks like we did it."

Julie smiled and nodded.

"You know," he continued, stroking his water gun, "it seems like only yesterday, we were playing with those action figures in school and just pretending to save the day. But now, we've actually done it for reals."

"Mm-hmm."

"It's given me this... funny feeling, you know? Like I'm not the same person I used to be. Like I've become..."

Zeke was startled to find himself cut off, as Julie's lips made contact with his.

"You talk too much." she said, winking at him.

Zeke smirked at her and replied, "Touche."

**X X X**

"You're sure about this, Sergeant?" Harry asked.

"We scoured the whole castle, Sir." Sergeant Weber replied, "But while we did find the gruesome remains of Dr. Tongue, there wasn't any body matching the description of that other scientist."

Meanwhile...

"And so, that's why I plan to leave this town and start a new life. One where I can forget about the crimes I helped to commit against humanity."

"Well, I wish you the best, my son." Father Vittorio responded on the other line, "May the Lord be with you, always."

"Thank you, Father. For everything. Goodbye."

With that, the scientist hung up the phone and began to pack his suitcase.

**X X X**

To be Concluded


	21. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

**X X X**

Zeke and Julie frantically opened fire on the approaching monster.

"Keep it up, we got this!" Zeke assured Julie.

It wasn't long afterwards, however, before one of the monster's zombie minions slipped through and bit Julie.

"Crap..." she said, "I think those were the last of my tokens."

"Oh... well, hang on..." Zeke responded, reaching into his pocket, "I think I've still-... aw! They got me too."

Zeke just barely managed to fish out his last two tokens, enough for one continue, before he wound up taking one too many hits himself. He looked at the tokens, then back at the game screen.

"Aw, what the hell, it's your birthday."

He then inserted the tokens into Julie's coin slot and pressed her player start button, before telling her, "Good luck."

Julie smiled and resumed the assault on the game boss, while Zeke picked up his drink and went back to quenching his thirst. After his straw signaled that the cup was empty, he went to a nearby trash can and tossed it in. Soon afterwards, he heard Julie cray out, "Oh my God!"

Zeke ran back to the game and watched in amazement, as the boss monster winced and roared in pain, before falling dead on the ground.

"You got him!" Zeke cried back, "You got him!"

The two of them hugged each other, before turning to watch the end cutscene. When the hall of fame prompt came up afterwards, with Julie's spot at number one, Zeke pointed at the game gun and said, "It's all you, Julie."

With that, Julie picked up the gun and shot the letter J. Then, after a brief moment's thought, she added the & symbol and the letter Z. J&Z.

"Couldn't have done it without you, after all." she said, putting the gun away and kissing his cheek.

Zeke smiled. Even though he wasn't present at the time, Zeke could already hear Trevor congratulating him on a job well done.

**X X X**

Trevor yawned as he flipped the sign on the door and locked it.

"What a day!" he muttered, "Can't remember last time we had that many customers."

As he started walking home, Trevor suddenly noticed a young woman screaming and running his way.

"Help!" she cried, "Somebody help us!"

"What's wrong?" Trevor called to her, "Are you alright?"

The woman looked his way, then ran up to him.

"There!" she cried, pointing towards the nearby cemetary, "Over there! The graveyard! My friends... they're after my friends!"

Trevor looked towards the graveyard.

_'Oh my God... you've gotta be kidding me!'_ he thought.

"Can you help them?" the woman asked.

Trevor thought about it for a moment, then said, "Well, I can't, but I know someone who can."

**X X X**

"You know, Julie," Zeke said, as they walked to Zeke's car, "I've been thinking..."

"Uh-oh..." Julie replied jokingly.

"Strange as it may sound," he continued, "I think this whole monster infestation was the best thing to happen to us. It brought us closer together, your mom and your uncle both got promoted, and we even got the key to the city from the mayor."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me," Julie responded, "I forgot to tell you something about that. I saw Ms. Crabtree in the audience at the ceremony, while you were giving that dull speech, and... get this: I saw her hold up an A plus after you finished!"

"Really? Gosh, that's... the nicest thing I've ever heard from her. Looks like things really are starting to change around here. I wonder if..."

Zeke stopped, when his phone started to ring. According to the screen, it was Trevor.

"Hey, what's up, Trevor?" Zeke answered, "Whoa... uh... hang on, let me put you on speaker."

He pressed the speaker phone button.

"Okay, repeat that."

"There's one last horde of zombies, still lurking around in the cemetery!" Trevor's voice responded, "And this girl here tells me that six of her friends are in there too."

Zeke and Julie looked at each other.

"How many zombies are there?" Julie asked.

"I counted like twenty of them. And unless I'm mistaken, about six or seven... walking dolls? Looks like they're carrying butcher's knives or meat cleavers, or something. And I think I see a... green... fish creature?"

"That it?" Zeke asked.

"Yeah, looks like it."

Zeke looked up at Julie.

"Twenty zombies, six or seven dolls, and one of those fish monsters." he said, "Graveyard's not far from here. What do you think?"

Julie thought about it briefly, then replied, "We can take 'em."

Zeke nodded, then told Trevor, "We're on the way!"

He hung up the phone and ran with Julie to his car. Hastily fishing out his keys, he unlocked and opened the trunk. Inside were the two water guns, a few vials of holy water- that Zeke purchased in case of such an occasion-, his 3D glasses, and Julie's baseball cap. After grabbing and filling their water guns, Julie donned her baseball cap while Zeke put on his glasses and closed the trunk.

"Hey, Zeke..."

"Yeah?"

Julie then surprised him, by giving him a kiss on the lips.

"Was that for luck?" he asked.

"No," Julie replied, with a smile, "that was for truly giving me the best birthday ever. Now, let's do this!"

Zeke smiled back and said, "Yes, Ma'am!"

And off they went.

**THE END**


End file.
